The Bright Side of the Dark Side
by Aingirl
Summary: Elinor has been on the run for as long as she can remember, but what happens when she meets a strange girl who claims that she knows of several other people 'just like her? FIRST STORY, and all critique accepted! Rated K , cause I'm paranoid about language, heh...
1. Welcome to Gloomsville!

**Author's Note: WOOOO! First story! Okay, I can't mess this up! Well, hi! This is the first time I've really showed anyone my writing (except for my besties, of course, heh) SO, I hope this is good enough for Fanfiction! Okay, let's get this show on the road! Let the Gloomy-ness begin... NOW!**

* * *

It was a cold morning. The sky was full of clouds, and not one ray of sunlight was shining through. This was the first thing Elinor saw when she opened her eyes.

She crawled out from underneath the bush she had slept under, then stretched her arms out, and yawned. She didn't realise how gloomy this place was... she had only seen it when it was dark, the night before. It was funny, really; during the night there were no clouds whatsoever. They must have ten minute changes in the whether... like Tasmania.

'_Damn,'_ thought Elinor, _'Mustn't think about your old home... Australia. You left it. They thought you were a freak... a monster.'_

The girl shook her head. Well, actually, she wasn't _really_ a girl. Not by human standards, anyway.

You see, Elinor, in fact, _wasn't_ human. She didn't really know what she was herself, to be honest. She thought she was some sort of human-reptile-bat-bull-hybrid, thing (Okay fine, so she was PART human). She had sleek black horns on her head, dark, leathery wings on her back, at least 13 feet across, scaly, taloned legs, a long barbed tail, pointy ears and blue cat like eyes. She kind of looked like something out of X-Men.

But, unfortunately for her, she was the only thing in the world of her kind, as far as _she_ knew.

Her human features were her long, dark brown hair, pale skin, and long fingernails which really seemed more like talons (Hey! Another lizard feature!). She still had the torso, head and arms of a human, but obviously that wasn't enough for her. Or anyone else, it seemed.

Elinor took a good look around. Nothing was alive. The trees were black, skinny, and crouched over with no leaves. All the grass was grey, and seemed more like tangled pieces of string. There weren't many flowers, but the few she _did _manage to spot were dying. Of course. There was also a well nearby, covered in vines that were – you guessed it – dead.

"How lovely," Elinor mumbled to herself (do not fear the sarcasm).

She sniffed the air. It was different now. Before, it smelled moist, yet decaying. Like nothing felt like it actually had any energy in it...

But now, there was a new smell. This was nicer... like finding a lily pad in a swamp. Was it... no, it couldn't be... but...

Elinor lowered herself onto all fours, and crept toward the scent. It was coming from about 15 metres east from the well.

Now, being on the run for as long as she could remember, Elinor was prone to exact locations and keeping low. _Way_ low. BUT, (there's always a BUT) she had one weakness; she had an extremely sweet tooth...which was way she was following this particular scent.

It was cake.

Elinor peeked over a bush (or what was left of it) to what she assumed was the source. What she saw surprised her; it was a whole _party _ it was packed to the rafters (rhetorically, of course) with all kinds of sweets; cordial, punch, fairy cake, cupcakes, biscuits... She spotted a cake in the middle of the table. She _would_ have sprung out to perhaps steal some food, but there was something missing amongst the food... but then, right next to the punch, she saw—

"CHOCOLATE!" Elinor cried out.

Completely forgetting the 'laying low' plan, Elinor jumped out of her hiding place and galloped over to the wondrous delight. She munched down on it gleefully, savouring every bite. THIS was what life was all about! Chocolate! There was just nothing that Elinor could compare to it; chocolate was really the best—

"Um... I know that my party food is good, but I didn't know it was _that_ good..."

Elinor's blood turned ice cold. She froze in place. After a few milliseconds, the shock disappeared and was replaced with terror. She'd been spotted.

Elinor slowly turned her head to her left. She saw a girl. She looked about seven, eight, somewhere round there. She had short, messy, bright red hair and skin so pale you'd swear it was white. Her eyes were big and innocent. At least, for now they looked innocent.

Elinor locked herself in a stare, looking straight at the girl. It was like she was just _daring _her to move, or scream, or run away. Come on, do it. Just like EVERYONE ELSE has.

But she didn't move. She just looked.

And looked.

And looked.

'_Must be in shock,'_ Elinor thought, _'No other explanation.'_

Elinor decided to take a chance and slowly stepped backwards. The girl had no reaction.

Wait... What's wrong with her face? Was she—No, she couldn't be... was she... smiling? At _Elinor?_

"You don't have to be afraid," the red-head said, "Believe it or not, I'm used to seeing things like you."

It was now Elinor's turn to stare at the girl. She knew other people like her?

...

Like Hell, she did.

"What game are you playing at?" Elinor snarled, "You working for someone? Trying to do me in? Come _on_, what's your angle?"

The girl's smile faded a bit, but was replaced with sincerity.

"I'm not trying to hurt you," she said, "I'm just trying to show you that you can fit in here."

"Oh really?" Elinor shot back sarcastically, "I don't see _you_ with freaking horns out of your head! Or talons! Heck, I have WINGS ON MY BACK! I look like a dragon sent from Hell!"

The girl took a step backwards, raising her hands.

"I'm sorry..." she said.

"Eh?" said Elinor.

"I mean, I'm sorry about making you angry... You just seemed like a nice person when you jumped out of the bushes and started eating the chocolate..." the girl put her hands behind her back and looked down at the ground.

'_UGH,' _thought Elinor, _'Great, now she's guilt tripping me.'_

There was a pause.

"Look," said Elinor, "I'm not used to actually... _talking_ to people. I'm kinda on the run from the entire world."

The girl looked up at this. Then there was more silence, and Elinor cleared her throat.

"Um... I'm finished talking."

"Oh! Right..." said the girl, slightly flustered, "Well, um... I'm Ruby, by the way."

'_Ruby, HAH!' _thought Elinor, _'Cause her hair's red! Get it? Cause... oh, never mind.'_ She wasn't really sure who she was having this mental conversation with.

"Hey," said Ruby, "if you're looking for a place to stay for a while, we have a _lot_ of spare beds at our house."

"_Our_ house?" Elinor repeated.

"Mm-hm," Ruby replied, "There's five of us... Well, six if you count Frank _and_ Len."

"_And_ Len?" Elinor echoed, "Hey... Frank and Len, Frank-Len... Are they twins, or something?"

Ruby giggled.

"Sort of," she answered.

Elinor pondered for a moment, weighing her odds.

On one hand this girl, Ruby, hadn't run away, and said that she knew more people like her. That was good, she supposed.

On the other, this could all be a trap and Ruby had been warned of what Elinor was and therefore led to the non-freaking-out-ness. And she could also be lying about the whole 'other people' thing...

Hmph.

* * *

**MWAHAHAAA! First chapter and there's ALREADY a cliffhanger! Please don't kill me! *ducks pillow attack***

**I really hope that I didn't make Elinor seem too much like Gaz/Mandy, but if I did, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! I don't want the main character to be a grumpy boots all the time! ;)**

**Anyway, R&R! I accept all kinds of criticism, even flames (not that I actually pay attention to them, heh)!**

**OH YEAH! The disclaimer! EVERYBODY RUN!**

**Ruby Gloom DOES NOT BELONG TO ME!**

**But Elinor does! :D**


	2. Cat and Bat

**Author's Note: HAHA! A new chapter! Well, I know it's kinda short and everything, and I apologise! But I remember sayin' in my profile that I would update every Sunday (Australian time), and that's what I'm gonna do! *strikes determined pose* Anyway, in the last chapter it describes what Elinor saw was a party table. Why is that convenient to THIS chapter, you may ask? Oh, you'll see... you'll see... mwhahaha...**

* * *

Elinor pondered her thoughts a while longer.

Yes?

No...

Yes?

No.

Yes!

_No!_

YES!

Ruby cleared her throat. Elinor snapped back to reality, and realised that she'd have to come to a decision within the next few seconds.

'_Okay,'_ thought Elinor, _'Maybe you should just try it out? You never know; you might like it! Besides, the SECOND you smell something fishy, you can just high-tail it outta there!'_

...

"Alright," said Elinor, sounding somewhat more defeated than she felt.

Ruby's face seemed to lighten up like a light bulb!

"Great!" she cheered, "I can't wait to introduce you to everyone! They'll be so exited; we hardly ever have guests! You can be the surprise guest, for the surprise party!"

Elinor's face was blank.

"What's a... _par-ty?_"

Ruby's face went paler than the chalk white it already was.

"You don't know what a party is?!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Elinor cringed and covered her sensitive, pointed ears.

"Is that, um, bad?" Elinor said, guessing the obvious answer.

"Yes!" Ruby said with a raised voice, recovering slightly from her outburst, "Party's are what makes life all the brighter!"

'_I definitely need one, then.' _Elinor thought.

"I know!" Ruby announced, "You can help me set it up! I still have to put up the ribbons around the well! What do you think would look good?"

"Um..."

Elinor wasn't really sure about what her favourite... ANYTHING was (accept chocolate, of course). She'd never really thought about it. Well, it's not like the authorities or the FBI would really care to know your colour preference now, would they?

"I dunno... maybe, purple? Dark purple? Something like that..."

Ruby seemed satisfied with Elinor's answer.

"Nice choice!" she said, cheerily, "We can both go back to the mansion and get them, that way you can meet the gang while you're there!"

Ruby grabbed Elinor's hand and started to skip away from the well. Elinor was a little curious about this 'mansion'; she was still weighing the possibility that this could all be a trap. But seriously, how could you come across someone CHEERFUL, yet part of a government operation?

Elinor was distracted by her internal thoughts by the HUGE shadow of a HUGE house. Or, in a more formal description, a mansion.

First of all, it definitely didn't look out of place. It's towers were ominous, looming over everything in sight. The left tower had a big window shaped like a heart with cross bones through it, while the tower on the right had a window shaped like a spider's web... creepy. In between the towers, there was a bridge-track-thingy connecting them. The bridge-thingy was loopy; so much so that it didn't look crossable – Elinor'd have to find that out later. There were even more dead trees around this mansion; Elinor even spotted a small house in one of them! Now _that's_ just loony.

The front doors were big, which was understandable due to the large-ness of the rest of the house. They creaked as Ruby pushed one of them forward to let Elinor into the massive house. The first thing Elinor saw as she stepped in was a crackling fire at the other end of the room. It had two seats around it; both occupied by a cat and a bat.

"Hey, Scaredy Bat and Doom Kitty!" Ruby said, waving.

The cat opened one eye from his sleeping position on the left seat, while the bat looked up from its—Wait, was it reading a book?

"Oh! Hello Rub—"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

All heads snapped toward the sudden scream, to see it was coming from Elinor. She had her head thrown back, and she was pointing at a startled Scaredy.

"YOU!" she shrieked, "YOU JUST _TALKED!"_

Elinor couldn't believe her ears! A. TALKING. Bat! It was just—just—WHAT?!

Elinor continued to shriek with confusion and terror, "AAH! AAH! AAAAHHH!"

"Elinor!" Ruby shouted, trying to calm the 'girl' down.

"I'VE FINALLY GONE NUTS!"

"Elinor, you're scaring Scaredy!"

"Oh, dear!" Scaredy howled, "She has gone nuts?! Oh, what a catastrophe!"*****

"AAAHHH! AAAAHHHH!"

"ELINOR!" Ruby yelled.

Silence fell across the room like a sheet. Elinor was breathing heavily, eyes still wide open from her outburst. Scaredy Bat had his eyes wide open in shock too, shivering in fear.

"Okay," said Ruby, breaking the silence with a happy tone, "Elinor, this is Doom Kitty," she gestured to the cat on the left seat, who made a sound resembling a cord from a violin, "and you've already met Scaredy Bat," she added with a giggle.

Elinor just stared, getting over the shock. If this was still some kind of trap, they were pretty dang good at making it believable.

"Ruby!" said Scaredy, still seeming to be panicked, "The girl just said she was going nuts! What does that mean? Is she crazy? Is she dangerous?! What is happening?!" he pulled on his ears in anxiety.

'_Wow,'_ thought Elinor, _'and I thought _I _was paranoid...'_

"Hey, don't worry Scaredy," said Ruby, patting the bat on the head, "She's just new!"

Ruby looked over at Elinor as if to say it was her cue to introduce herself. Hesitantly, Elinor had a go.

"Um... Hi. My name's Elinor... but Ruby kinda gave that away, heh," Elinor was desperately trying to make the matter humorous.

She earned a proud smile from Ruby for being conversational; something that Elinor wasn't very accustomed to.

"You are _sure_ she's not crazy?" Scaredy asked one more time in a whisper.

"Yes, Scaredy, I'm sure," replied Ruby in an amused tone.

* * *

*** THANK GOODNESS FOR SPELLCHECK!**

**WOO! Chapter 2 is DONE! I'm sorry again for the short-ness, but next time I'll have a week to write it, so it WILL be longer, I PROMISE! Who will Elinor meet next? Will she like them? Will she loose control and burn the mansion down? Will she bake cookies for everyone?**

**...**

**FIND OUT NEXT TIME!**

**AAAHHH! DISCAIMERS!**

**Ruby Gloom and all it's participating characters and places all DO NOT BELONG TO MOI!**

**But Elinor does!**


	3. Talking Crows and Cyclops Girls

**Hey, guys! New chapter here! Okay, this week it is NOT SHORT! YAY! Also, we will be meeting two other characters (as a side note, I'm really bad at naming things!) and Elinor starts to here a peculiar 'word'. "WHAT IS IT?!" I hear some of you scream? Let's find out, of course!**

* * *

After the whole talking bat episode, Ruby took Elinor to the other parts of the mansion. Ruby had to admit, if something as simple as a talking bat was enough to make Elinor throw her head back and scream at the top of her lungs, who knew how she would react to the other kids of the house?

No, no, that wasn't worth worrying about. Elinor _was_ one of the kinds of… 'people' living here. She wouldn't be so hypocritical.

Then again, Elinor hadn't been aware that other creatures like her existed until that morning. She genuinely thought that she was the only kind the world had to offer. Ruby guessed it _would_ come as a pretty big shock to someone suddenly finding out there was an entire hidden world in which you were able to fit in to… the _only_ world you would be able to fit in to…

Elinor noticed Ruby had her brow furrowed. Well. That was new.

Elinor still had a little voice in the back of her mind telling her that she _could_ be in danger, but it was more of a whisper now. If anything, Elinor was _interested_ to see what else was in this mansion. If talking animals was only scratching the surface of this, what else could possibly be here?

"You'll really love Poe," said Ruby a little suddenly, "You seem like the type who likes poetry."

"Well," said Elinor, "I guess I kind of like a little bit of classical music every now and then, but I'm more of a rock n' roll type. Y'know, stuff like Short Stack and All Time Low."

"Oh, okay!" said Ruby in an agreeing voice, "I know just who you should meet after Poe, then!"

'_I dunno whether to be exited or scared,'_ thought Elinor, amused and nervous at the same time.

Elinor followed Ruby up the stairs, through the left corridor, a right turn, another hallway, and through another door***. **Goodness, that mansion was huge...

When Elinor went through the door after the red-head, she found herself inside a kitchen. An old, Victorian styled kitchen, to be exact*****. There was a table by the window, and a stove in the middle of the room. Hanging over the table, was a row of some sort of plant. Elinor guessed it was rosemary. On the other side of the room was a kitchen bench with cupboards attached to the wall above it, and in one corner was a tub full of apples... in green water? Ew. Sitting at the table, with her back turned to them, was a girl with short black hair, wearing a short dress with red stripy socks; not unlike Ruby's little get up.

On the other end of the table was something that was a little more interesting*****. A crow.

Wearing a cape. And gloves.

...

And a monocle.

'_Ten bucks says he talks too...'_ Elinor silently betted.

The crow looked up from his cup of tea and spoke, in a strong British accent, "Ah! Ruby! How marvellous to see you! And I see you have a friend?"

'_Yep,'_ Elinor thought, _'Someone in my subconscious owes me ten bucks.'_

Just at that moment, the girl who was sitting opposite the crow spun around in her seat, revealing her face.

Elinor's jaw dropped.

"Hi!" the girl said, getting up from her seat and bounding over, "I'm Iris! What's your name? Where do you come from? What are you doin' here in Gloomsville? Do you have a favourite colour? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

Elinor only stared. Okay, she was imagining _something_ along the lines of 'different', but THIS?

The girl. Only had. ONE. EYE.

ONE EYE! IN THE MIDDLE OF HER FORHEAD!

Elinor slapped a hand to her mouth to stop herself from screaming like she did with Scaredy Bat. But, STILL! Who WOULDN'T be freaked out by a Cyclops?! Especially one that was asking way too many questions, way too close to your face...

"Okay, Iris, give her some space to breathe," Ruby said, while gently pushing the Cyclops girl away.

"But I wanna know!" Iris retorted.

"If I may," inclined the talking crow, "it seems that Miss Ruby's accomplice is a little... oh, what's the word..."

"Shocked?" suggested Ruby.

"Speechless?" added Iris.

"Befuddled!" finished the crow.*****

"Uh..." started Elinor, trying (yet again) to make conversation, "I'll just try to answer those questions in order; my names Elinor, I come from Australia, or Tasmania, I just came to... Gloomsville (?) to crash from all the running away and I think my favourite colour's purple. Ruby already knows that, though."

'_Wow,'_ thought Elinor, _'That's the most I've talked to someone in ages!'_

"M'well, yes," said the talking crow in response, "My name is Poe, descendant of the great poet Edgar Allen Poe's pet budgie, Paco, and graduate from Oxford University." Elinor made a silent note to never, ever, get caught in an elevator with this bird.

"So!" Iris almost shouted, abruptly, "Elinor! Come with me!"

Without waiting for a response, Iris had grabbed Elinor's arm and was dragging her away from the rest of the group. Elinor wasn't really sure what to do; a) Go with the flow and let Iris show her what she thought was so obviously in need of showing, or b) Bight, claw, and snarl at the Cyclops girl until the either let go or stopped breathing.***** She settled with not burning down the mansion, and letting Iris have her way... for now.

Iris dragged Elinor through another door in the room, back to the staircase, across the hall, through another door, into _another _hall, down some stairs, and through a left door, to what looked like an indoor circus.

'_Maybe I shouldn't waste all the room in my memory with all these twists and turns...' _thought Elinor almost sarcastically.

The supposed 'indoor circus' had swinging hoops hanging from the extremely high ceiling, a large fire crackling in the middle of the room, and a bed on top of a very large rock climbing cliff. Elinor guessed this was Iris' idea of a good bedroom.

"You're gonna _love_ this!" Iris exclaimed, "I do it all the time; it's the least I could do for a new friend!"

"... Friend?" Elinor tested the word in her mouth.

"Yeah!" shouted Iris, "You don't have to repeat what I say, y'know. Save your voice for screaming with excitement!"

Before Elinor could protest, Iris had shoved Elinor onto a trampoline and bounced her all the way to the top of the rock climbing wall, where the bed was.

"THE BEST WAY TO LAND IS ON YOUR FEET!" Iris called up to a very surprised Elinor.

Now, normally someone would be screaming for their life and flailing their arms around like a freaked out pelican. But Elinor was used to heights; anyone remember the big wings on her back?

Elinor flexed her muscles, and pushed her wings out either side of her to slow her fall.

"Hey!" Iris shouted, "That's cheating!"

Elinor raised her eyebrow for a moment, then shrugged and pulled her wings back in. The plummet back down was a little faster than she expected, and she yelped a little when she bounced right back up when she came into contact with the tramp.

"WOO!" shouted Iris from where she stood, "Isn't that FUN?!"

'_Yeah,'_ thought Elinor, _'Fun if you like the plummeting through the sky with no parachutes!'_

"Can I STOP NOW?!" Elinor shouted a little unnecessarily loudly.

"Okay, okay, _fine_. Sheesh..." Iris grumbled as the moved the trampoline.

Elinor unfolded her wings and glided around the room back down to the sweet, sweet, floor. Just as she landed, the door flew open revealing Ruby out of breath. Boy, Iris was fast...

"Are you alright?" Ruby huffed.*****

"Um, yeah," Elinor started a little uncertainly, "But maybe a little freaked—"

"You guys should've been here! I was like, 'WOO!' and Elinor was like, 'AAAHHH!', and then she tried to cheat using her wings—GASP!" Iris seemed to stand up straighter than she already was, "YOU HAVE TO MEET SQUIG! You guys could be flying buddies!"

"Iris," said Ruby, stopping the Cyclopes girl from having a heart failure from all her excitement, "Maybe Elinor should come with me to meet everybody else, _then_ she can meet Squig, okay?"

Iris crossed her arms and huffed in disappointment, "_Fine,_" she muttered.

Elinor was certainly relieved to be free from Iris' excitable grasp. She left the room with Ruby, and followed her away.

"Is... _Iris_, always like that?" Elinor asked, twiddling her fingers.

"Yep," answered Ruby, "She's also one of the best friends a girl could have!"

There that word was again... 'friend'. What did that word _mean?_

'_Should I ask?'_ thought Elinor, _'...Nah. It's probably not that important anyway.'_

* * *

***-Elinor has a tendency to remember where she goes, just so she can plan an escape route, and such. :3**

***-Isn't the entire mansion Victorian?**

***-HAHAHAHAHAHA! Just you wait, Elinor, just you wait... heh.**

***-THE BEST. WORD. EVER. :D**

***-I'M SORRY, IRIS! ELINOR DIDN'T MEAN IT! Eheheh...**

***-Heh, anyone else find it humorous that Ruby was _worried_ about Elinor being dragged off by Iris? I do!**

**WOW! That's a lot of footnotes... heh, whoops!**

**Anyway, GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME! Yes, your worst fears have been realised, (depending who you are, of course) Elinor DOES NOT KNOW WHAT A 'FRIEND' IS.**

**LEGASP!**

**What will happen next? Who can guess who Elinor will meet in the next chapter? Will I stop putting all these footnotes on the bottom of the chapters? I ain't tellin', we'll see, and no way Jose!**

**Ruby Gloom and all characters and locations do NOT BELONG TO ME!**

**But, of course, Elinor does!**


	4. Misery and Librarians

**Okie dokie! Just thought I'd give you guys a heads up, this chappie's a little bit borin'! You see, Elinor's very tired and not really taking many things into giant detail. And also, we'll probably see the chracters Elino meets in this chapter in the next one too, just so their fans don't feel that they're getting left out.**

**Oh! And as a bonus, there's a small cameo of a guy who scares the HECK outta me! If anyone can guess 'im, PLEASE DON'T SAY HIS NAME OUT LOUD! Even his name give me the creeps... .''**

* * *

'_Okay,'_ thought Elinor, _'let's do a recap. So far, I've met a red head who seems to be at least six years old living with a mansion full of monsters, a black cat called 'Doom Kitty' if I recall, who only makes violin noises instead of meows, a talking bat and crow with a monocle, and a Cyclops who's obsessed with adrenaline._

_Well, I certainly didn't expect all of _that_ to happen when I woke up this morning.'_

Elinor was in the mansion's library (Yes, she became almost ecstatic when she found out), having some quiet time. Lately, her day had been _so_ full of surprises and screaming she was curious as to know why she hadn't had a mental breakdown yet.

Probably because they were all younger than her... except for the crow, but he was ridiculously small, so he didn't count*****.

Elinor was scanning she shelves; most of them were drama, with a few Horror novels here and there. Elinor, unfortunately, was fond of neither. It was actually a little strange to her; _she_ was one of the creatures that most people would think to put in a horror story, yet she couldn't _stand_ them herself. She guessed it was because she got paranoid pretty easily...

'_I'm never going to stop flinching at _anything_ in a suit ever since that _stupid game_... GAH.'_ Elinor shuddered at a bad memory. A very, VERY _bad_ memory.

Just then, Elinor saw something move out of the corner of her eye... it was dark, tall and seemed dreadfully familiar...

Without thinking, Elinor whipped around, bared her fangs and talons, and snarled.

To a girl sitting at the table.

Oh.

'_Well... that's a relief.'_ Elinor thought, while sighing.

Then Elinor took a double take on the girl. She noticed that she had grey skin, and bloodshot bags underneath her eyes, with streams of tears running down her face... oh, how nice.

'_I wonder what this one is...' _thought Elinor _'A witch? A zombie? OH! A vampire?!'_

Elinor took a step closer to the girl, who had long black hair, with a purple veil over it. At the closeness of Elinor's presence, the girl looked up from her tragedy novel.

"So," she said a croaky and flat voice, "you must be the 'crazy new girl' Scaredy told me about. Don't worry; being crazy doesn't _always_ mean you have rabies... except if you're my great uncle on my father's side..."

A flare of annoyance kindled in Elinor's chest at the, 'Crazy new girl' name tag, but was quickly replaced with slight disturbance at the girls' last comment.

"Don't worry," the girl continued, "It doesn't spread to future generations, so you shouldn't have anything to worry about."

Just then, a lightning bolt came out of nowhere and electrocuted the girl in her chair, leaving her with burnt clothes and hair.

"Ow." was all she said.

'_Impressive,' _thought Elinor, _'I'm pretty sure I would've at _least _thrown a hissy fit!'_

Elinor remembered that after she had been taken away from Iris' clutches, Ruby had suggested to Elinor that she try and make friends with the few other kids in the mansion. The lightning girl was obviously one of them, but due to her lack of luck... well, let's just say Elinor wasn't entirely fond of thunderstorms.

BUT, she decided to give it a try anyway.

"So..." Elinor started, "...My name's Elinor. And I'm probably not as crazy as the bat made it sound. _Probably_."

The girl's corners of her mouth made a hint of a twitch.

"That's kinda funny," she said, "My name's Misery. But you should know, I'm not always like that."

'_To be honest, I wouldn't _blame_ her for being miserable all the time if you were struck by lightning on a regular basis.'_ thought Elinor.

There was a moment of silence in the library.

"Well," said Misery, standing up, "It was nice talking with you, Elinor. I'm just going to go now... I should practice my singing voice for Frank and Len."

'_Frank and Len...'_ Elinor thought, _'I could have _sworn_ I've heard those names before...'_

"Bye," said Elinor.

Misery just left the room, without even turning around. Elinor guessed that Misery was a little short of hearing, which would make sense.

But who were these, Frank and Len? It made Elinor curious, and when her interest was sparked, she couldn't help but get into the nitty gritty of it.

...

_Right_ after a nap... yeah...

After all, it was around 11 at night. Normally she wasn't so easily to tire, but since the days' earlier events, she was beat.

Elinor then realised; where the heck would she sleep?

Elinor groaned, "Time for another adventure," she almost grumbled.

Elinor walked out of the library door, then called, "RUUUUUBYYYYYY!"

Elinor waited for a moment, then heard a faint, "YES?" from somewhere outside the house.

"WHERE DO I SLEEP?!" Elinor shouted.

"WHAT?!"

"WHERE-DO-I-SLEEP?!"

"OH!" Ruby shouted back, "JUST A SEC! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"AT THE LIBRARY!" Elinor shouted back.

"Hey!" a new voice shouted, "Could you keep it down over there?"

Elinor was interested... this was a new voice. New voice meant new kid to meet!

It was coming from down the hall, to Elinor's left. She turned her head that way to spot someone... very skinny. _Very_ skinny... he literally looked like he was skin and bones! That could _not_ be healthy!

The skinny guy (who looked to be in his early teens) seemed to only just realise he didn't really _know_ the girl he had just shouted at.

"Oh!" he said, "Uh, heh, um... sorry?"

Elinor arched an eyebrow. This guy was a little... tentative.

"I mean for shouting," the teen clarified.

'_Huh,' _thought Elinor, _'So he's polite... good.'_

"Sorry Skull Boy!" the voice of Ruby said from about a corridor away, "Elinor was just wanting to know where she could sleep."

"That's okay, Ruby," the teen called Skull Boy (strange name...) replied, "But maybe next time you should tell her where you're going before you leave her alone," he added with a slight chuckle.

"Eh_-hem_," Elinor said, "Y'know it's rude to talk about someone when you _know_ they can hear you."

Ruby gave Elinor a look of slight surprise. Elinor almost face-palmed.

"Sorry," she said, "Sometimes I can be a real pain when I'm tired..."

"Well," said Ruby, starting conversation again, "Why don't I show Elinor to her room? Wanna join us, Skull Boy?"

Ruby looked hopefully, and a hint of something else that Elinor couldn't quite place, at Skull Boy.

"No thanks, Ruby," Skull Boy said, "I've got some reading to do. I think I might be related to a long line of librarians!"

Skull Boy then dashed right passed Elinor and into the library. During the brief moment that he was close to Elinor, the girl noticed that he didn't have skin... at all. He was an animate skeleton. Well, that would explain the skinny-ness. Strange that he had a mouth and eyes though... huh.

"Come on, Elinor!" Ruby gestured Elinor to follow her through the labyrinth of a mansion to where she would be sleeping.

"I'm comin'..." Elinor said drowsily.

* * *

*** Oh, Elinor, stop judging by size!**

**Da-da-dala-da-da-daaaa! There ya have it!**

**I apologise for the drowsy-ness of the chappie once again! BUT, as always, there'll be a new chapter next Sunday! Have a good one, guys!**

**Ruby Gloom doesn't belong to me**

**But Elinor DOES, baby!**


	5. Thunderstorms and Rock Stars

**TODAY. WAS. THE BEST. DAY OF MY LIFE! :D Y'see, my dad took me to the mall saying that he was going to get me a 'surprise'. Natually, I had turned into a little giggling child by the time we got there. He took me to Big W (that's like a massive shop, full of all sorts of stuff), and told me to close my eyes. So, I did, and he led me through. When he told me to open 'em, here's what I saw; A FREAKING XBOX KINECT BABY! WOOO! It's all MINE! He also got me sushi for lunch, and a mango magic boost, along with two new games (Skyrim and... well, I'll keep the last one a secret for my own personal pride XD).**

**Yep. Best day of my life. (so far!)**

**So guys, enjoy this next chapter, now filled with my hyperactivity! Now, don't kill me or anything... ^^;**

* * *

_**Leave them.**_

Huh?

_**Leave them. Get out of here.**_

I don't remember giving _you_ authority over my actions!

_**You never did. I **_**am**_** you, idiot.**_

Don't call me that!

_**Get out of this place. It's dangerous for you. It's playing with your mind... changing you.**_

Well, what if I'm okay with that?

_**It doesn't matter whether or not you're 'okay' with it; you have to get OUT.**_

Why is it so important, anyway?

_**This place has an aura, and it clashes with yours like day and night. It is weakness. Leave NOW, or it will consume you!**_

CRACK-KOOM!

Elinor leaped out of her pillow. She looked around wildly before realising she was inside a bedroom.

Oh! Right, she had stayed in one of the mansions' MANY unused spare rooms for her sleep... Where, exactly, in the giant house was she again?

'_Ugh,' _she thought, _'I suppose I can worry about it—'_

KRACK-KOOOOOM!

"Eek!"

Elinor snatched her bed covers up to her chin in fear. Loud noises! Lightning! Dark room! GAH!

The terrified girl ducked underneath her covers and shivered.

'_It's just noise,' _she kept on repeating to herself in her mind, _'Just noise, can't hurt you...'_

"Elinor?"

"ACK!"

Elinor, yet again, yelped and threw her covers off in a force of old attack habits. Once she remembered that there was really no need for that, she focused on who she almost snarled at.

It was... wait, _not_ Ruby?

It was that skeleton boy from last night; the one that thought he was related to librarians, or something like that. What was his name again? Skull Boy, right?

Elinor up and downed the kid; he looked fairly harmless. Strange, but harmless. Interesting choice of clothes though; a black sloppy-Joe, with gloves, a belt with a skull symbol (Ha! The irony...), black jeans and black converses.

Wow, he really like black, didn't he?

"Ruby just wanted to make sure you were up, so we could have breakfast with you," said Skull Boy.

Elinor felt slightly overwhelmed; they all wanted to have breakfast... with _her? _Just because she was _new?_

...

Maybe they hadn't caught the drift that she enjoyed being alone?

'_Eh,' _Elinor thought, '_I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.'_

_**NO.**_

'_UGH,' _Elinor thought, _'You again? What the hell do you want?!'_

_**For you to GET. OUT.**_

"Uh, hello?"

Elinor's train of thought grinded to a halt as she snapped back to reality. Skull Boy was standing there with his arms crossed and a sightly impatient look on his face.

"Ah," she said, "Right, breakfast..."

Elinor followed the animate skeleton through the hallways.

Wonder why Ruby had sent someone to get Elinor, instead of coming up herself? She must be planning something... or she just wanted Elinor to continue to get better with her people skills... probably the latter.

"So, this mansion," started Elinor, "It's pretty... big."

'_STUPID line!'_ Elinor shouted to herself inwardly, _'ANYONE who can see would've noticed that, you imbecile!'_

"Yeah, it is pretty large isn't it?" Skull Boy replied conversationally.

'_Elinor, you genius!'_

"Oh, yes!" Elinor beamed a little too brightly, "I mean, it's _massive! _You could fit a whole frigging elephant herd in here, right?"

Skull Boy gave Elinor a weird look for a second.

"Um... I suppose so?"

'_STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!'_

Luckily, they managed to reach the kitchen just that very moment. Elinor quickly opened the door and dashed inside to see a crowd of, well... monsters.

They all immediately stopped mid conversation the second Elinor entered the room, and shipped their heads towards Elinor. Said girl recognised all the faces; Ruby, Iris, Poe, Doom Kitty, Scaredy Bat and Misery.*****

"You know, you don't have to run away from someone if you find the conversation uncomfortable," came Skull Boy's voice from behind Elinor.

"Uh, yeah, sorry 'bout—"

"HI, ELINOR!"

Elinor had a mini heart attack as the Cyclops girl bounced (Literally, she _bounced._ She had springs on.) over to her.

"D'you remember me? D'you remember me? Huh? Huh? Huh?" she kept on asking right in Elinor's face as her own went up and down, up and down...

"I'm sure she'd remember you, Iris," came to hoarse voice of Misery, "Unless she really _does_ have rabies and Scaredy was right..."

"Oh, I told you!" said the hysterical bat, "I told you she was crazy!"

"Guys!" Ruby shouted over the rest, causing silence, "I'm sure she remembers all of us, and I'm certain she isn't crazy."

"Yes," added in Poe, "I say that she seems quite the Lady."

"Thank you, Poe," Ruby said, smiling warmly.

Ruby turned to Elinor, who had gone a little numb from all the attention she was receiving.

"So," said Ruby, "do you like pancakes, El—"

The red head stopped mid sentence. Her eyes became slightly wider, as she seemed to have remembered, or realised something.

"Hey," she said, "Has anyone seen Frank and Len?"

"We're right here!"

Everyone in the room turned their attention the left door; standing there, was probably the most interesting monster Elinor had seen in the mansion yet!

He (or they?) had two heads; right (their right) was blue, left was green. The blue head has a hair style like an old rock star, with black and a white checked shoe on his side of the body.

The green head had messy, black hair, and a piercing on his left eyebrow. He had a red flame design on his shoe, giving him the air of a punk rock star too.

"Sorry we're late," the green one said, "Frank couldn't find his shoe."

"I _told_ you, Len," said the blue one, "I didn't lose it; _you _did!"

"Why would _I_ lose it?" Len rebutted, "It's _your_ shoe!"

"Never mind, Len," Frank sighed, "You just don't get it..."

"Um, guys?" Ruby intervened, "This is Elinor!"

The duo focused their attention to the bat-lizard-girl-thing standing in the middle of the room.

She looked kind of uncomfortable.

"Hey there!" said Frank, stepping forward with Len, "Me and my brother heard about you last night; are you really crazy?"

"I AM NOT CRAZY!" Elinor yelled in frustration, but immediately regretted it seeing how they backed away several steps.

"Uh, heh..." said Elinor, feeling sweat forming on the back of her neck, "...Sorry?"

The two brothers looked at each other for a moment, then shrugged off the outburst.

"And by the way, Frank," said Len, "It's my brother and _I_."

"Whatever, Len!"

* * *

*** Think we're missing someone? ;3**

**HAH! Looks like Elinor has a DARK SIDE (clue to the new game I got). Aaaaaand we met Skull Boy again, 'cause I thought we didn't have enough of him last chapter. X3 We also meet my two personal favourite charactesrs, FRANK AND LEN! They're just so funny!**

**Will this voice in Elinor's head be a problem?**

**Will Elinor loose it and burn down the mansion (haven't we already had that question?)?**

**Will DRAMA go down next chapter?**

**Probably, possibly, and... I ain't tellin!**

**Tune in next time!**

**RUBY GLOOM DOESN'T BELONG TO ME, DANGIT!**

**But Elinor does, woo!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	6. Ghostly Pranks

**DO YOU LIKE MAH SWORD, SWORD  
SWORD MY DAIMOND SWORD, SWORD?  
YOU CANNOT AFORD, FORD  
FORD MY DAIMOND SWORD, SWORD  
EVEN IF YOU COULD, COULD  
I HAVE A PATENT! :D**

**Hey, guys! Found this hilarious guy called TOBUSCUS and now I'm hooked! But DON'T YOU WORRY! Nothin's gonna get in the way of me an' this fic!**

**Oh, and on a slightly more serious note (I'M SORRY!), please, NO TELLING MEH WHICH CHARACTER'S IMMA DO NEXT-AH! I know, I know, we all hate ranters (Puts us all in bad moods, ;_;) but please! This isn't directed to any of yo guys who've given support and constantly motivate me (you guys ROCK!) but, please, DON'T-AH TELL-AH MEH!**

**Again, I'M REALLY SORRY!**

**Now, BACK TO THE FUTURE- I mean, BACK TO GLOOMSVILLE!**

* * *

Elinor had to admit; Ruby could make some pretty darn decent pancakes!

She took another bight of cinnamon and honey drowned pancake goodness, as she licked her chomps satisfyingly.

"When we're done here," Frank piped up, "we can show Elinor our new killer song!"

Said girl's pointed ears pricked up at this.

"Song?" she said after swallowing her pancake, "What kinda songs do you write?"

"Rock!" Len shouted while holding up his fork full of pancake.

"Yup," said Frank, "It's all about the music!"

"Did Misery tell you she's a great singer?" Skull Boy added from his end of the table.

"She might have mentioned it last night when I was in the library," Elinor said more to herself than the others.

"Yeah!" Frank and Len said simultaneously, "She's got a piffy female voice!"

"I'm only able to sing that way when I'm asleep, though," croaked Misery from her spot next to Skull Boy.

'_I'm surprised that she can sing at _all_ with that worn out voice she's got goin' on...'_ thought Elinor.

"I talk in my sleep," she said a little abruptly.

Most of the heads at the table looked in her direction politely, and a little confusedly.

"No offense," said Iris, "but how would you know that if you've been alone almost your whole life?"

Elinor suddenly became _very_ interested in her plate (which was almost devoid of any pancake left). She glanced up at the rest of the group and said, "Well, I wasn't _completely_ alone the _entire_ time..."

"You had a travel buddy?" Ruby asked in her cheerful way.

"Yeah," replied Elinor, "something like that. Her name was Georgia, and she looked almost exactly like me... y'know, horns, wings, scales and such. We were kind of like partners, us against the world sort of thing."

All the attention was directed towards Elinor, now.

"So..." Ruby ventured, "If you guys were partners, why'd you split up?"

Elinor became a little quiet now, a lot like her original state.

"She..." Elinor said a little quietly, causing Skull Boy and Misery to lean in further to hear properly, "She did things a little... _differently_ than how I liked to do it. She didn't really understand the concept of, 'keeping a low profile'. We're still connected though, we meet up every other month or so... but it isn't the same anymore."

There was a slightly uncomfortable silence.

Then they noticed something odd; the cinnamon bottle was _moving_. Elinor didn't notice; she was still in her little daze. As the bottle rose higher and higher off the table, the monster kids noticed that it was tilting, and getting close to Elinor's head...

"Elinor!" they all shouted, "Look—!"

SPLAT.

Elinor was COVERED in sweet, sticky cinnamon from horns to talons. And she wasn't happy about it.

"Okay," she said terrifyingly calmly, "why, praytel, IS THERE CINNAMON ALL OVER ME?!"

Her answer was a cheeky giggle coming from seemingly nowhere. For some reason this seemed to explain everything perfectly for the rest of the group, for they exchanged looks of exasperation and humour.

"Looks like we got ourselves a new guest!" said the voice, which Elinor identified as a young boy, "I should make 'er feel welcome!"

At that point, the few pancakes that were left floated up with the plate, and then threw themselves towards poor old Elinor.

This time Elinor was ready for it; she dived underneath the table and entered fight-and-claw-for-your-life-mode (something she unfortunately had experience with). She scooted over to an opening between Ruby and Scaredy Bat (who had taken to hyperventilating with a paper bag) and clawed at where the pancakes had been floating.

"Ouch!" yelped the voice, "I might be invulnerable, but I can still feel pain!" he snapped.

"If you don't want to feel a whole lot more, you'll show yourself," Elinor snarled.

"Okay, okay! Sheesh, I was just pullin' a harmless lil' prank..."

What materialised in front of Elinor made her stop and stare.

It was a ghost... with rosy cheeks and wide eyes.

"Boo-Boo!" squealed Iris, "We _knew_ that was you!"

"Ha!" Boo-Boo gloated, "Only a complete _master_ such as myself could pull off something like _that_! But I guess _someone,_" Boo-Boo shot a glare at Elinor, "doesn't know how to control her temper!"

"I'll show you control—"

"Now, what in the blazes is going on here?!"

All heads turned to face Poe, who had just entered the dining room through the front doors.

"Sorry for being late, Ruby my dear, but Edger and Allen couldn't find my monocle," he said, "M'anyway, what was all that racket?"

"Elinor just met Boo-Boo, Poe!" Ruby explained in a cheery tone, "He introduced himself in the only way he knows how; pranking!" she pointed to the mess on Elinor's chair, and Elinor herself covered in cinnamon.

"Ah, yes," Poe said, "He _does_ seem to have that nasty little habit."

"Nasty? Ha!" the ghost boy almost interrupted, "How about awesome!"

"And annoying," Elinor mumbled.

"Wha' was that?"

"Nothing!"

* * *

**And there we have it!**

**Sorry, Alice, we didn't meet Mr. Mumbles or Venus, but they'll show up pretty soon so don't feel left out! ;3**

**No footnotes? Eh, guessssss I didn't have much explaining-**

**OH YEAH! We get a small cameo of Elinor's old acomplice, GEORGIA! She's the property of Ainzz, so, all credit for her character goes to HER!**

**Thank you all SO MUCH for reading, and not for hatin' on the rantin' (if you haven't all ready, heh! *hides*)**

**Ruby Gloom doesn't belong to me**

**And neither does Georgia, but I've already explainnnnnnnnnned that!**

**But, hehe, Elinor's MINE!**

**See ya next week!**


	7. Madhouses of Merriment!

**Come on  
Get along  
Goin' on  
This great adventure is on  
So come on  
Goin' on  
This great adventure...  
What are we waiting for?**

**A PRIZE for whoever can guess where that song is from... there's a clue in this chapter, but I'll give you another one: The host's name was Elliot.**

**OKAY! Anyway, guys I just wanted you to know that I may be posting some chapters that MIGHT be kinda 'off', and if I do that I APOLOGISE! BUT, in the case that I DO, I just wanted to give you guys an explantion; someone who was very close to me has just been killed in a car crash, and I'm feeling down lately, but NOT down enough to let YOU GUYS down!**

**Enjoy the chatper, cuz I had fun with this!**

* * *

.

_GODDAMN I HATE THAT LITTLE GHOST PUNK HE PUTS A BAD NAME FOR CASPER I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM—_

_**Stop whining.**_

_...eh?_

_**You were unprepared. Any amateur sneak attack could have taken you by surprise. You're getting slow.**_

_Oh, I'm sorry; I don't remember asking you to tell me my whole life story!_

_**Stop being a brat and leave.**_

_I said NO!_

_**Whatever happened to the Elinor who enjoyed being on the run? Now you're just pathetic.**_

_Hey, 'pathetic's a strong word..._

_**Yes. And it deserves to be used with YOU.**_

Elinor brought herself back into the real world. She was standing in front of a mirror in one of the bathrooms, wrapped in a towel, and dripping wet.

'_I haven't had a bath like that in while,' _she thought, _'I'm used to taking showers in the rain.'_

She quickly slipped back on her old, torn-in-many-places, dark purple T-Shirt. She'd been wearing that thing for as long as she could remember. In her earlier memories she considered it to be some sort of dress; then she grew older and bigger and it became a shirt instead. Ah, terrifying, blurry, almost painful childhood memories...

'_I'm not pathetic...'_ she thought, _'I'm just... opinionative. Open minded.'_

Elinor sighed.

She opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom.

Right into Misery.

GAH!

Elinor stumbled on her feet and fell down, accidentally dragging the banshee girl down with her. They landed in a heap, Elinor crushed on the bottom.

"Sorry..." Elinor choked underneath Misery.

"Oh, it's fine," Misery replied, "normally _I'm_ the one who lends up on the bottom. Hee, hee, hee..."

Elinor's temper flared a tiny bit.

"Okay, you can get up now," she said making an effort not to snap.

They untangled themselves and got up off the floor.

"I was just on my way to Mr. Mumbles' opening of his new ride," she said, "It's called 'The Topsy Turvy Triangle'. I think it sounds like fun..."

Elinor stared blankly at Misery.

"...Mr. Who?"

Misery gave Elinor a surprised look for a second, then realised that Elinor was _new._

"Mr. Mumbles owns the theme park next door," she said, "It's actually a little strange; Poe named him 'Mr. Mumbles' before he even _knew_ the guy, yet we all just call him that anyway..." Misery shrugged.

"Anyway," she continued, "You should come to the opening; I don't think you've gone to many amusement parks, have you?"

"No, not really..."

It was true; Elinor hadn't actually _ever_ gone to an amusement park in her LIFE! Well, what would you expect from a girl who couldn't remember her past before age 9?

"Well, come on then," Misery (almost) cheered, "Follow me!"

Elinor lowered her eyelids for a second, then sighed, shrugged, and followed the banshee girl as she asked.

They walked through the labyrinth of hallways and doors (Elinor had given up on remembering the way) and eventually found themselves at the main hall and through the big front doors.

"The way to the park is just down that path," Misery pointed to a little pathway to her right, "It's inside a huge glasshouse. It's pretty cool."

'_An amusement park? In a glasshouse? If amusement parks are like anything I've seen in cartoons, that's not exactly "safety first"...'_

The pathway was cute, to say the least; it was lined with shiny stones on the sides and tall, skinny street lamps with ivy growing around them lit up the little trail. Elinor soaked up her surroundings as she followed Misery down said pathway.

As they passed a group of rather big and tall bushes, Elinor saw a... a...

'_Holey exploding glasshouses, Batman...'_ Elinor inwardly inhaled in amazement.

It was the most... um... AMAZING glasshouse Elinor had ever seen!***** It looked somewhat like a castle, with several pillars pointing up with little triangles on the top, and it was so freaking BIG! It almost put the Gloomsville Mansion to _shame_ (Keyword: almost)_!_

"We're here," Misery droned.

"I kinda figured that, thanks..." Elinor said, feeling a little light headed.

"Well, let's go inside!" Misery said, making Elinor a little scared seeing her, well, _excited._*****

As she passed through the gates, she was met by an old man with glasses on, and a cane.

... And a frog on his head?

"Hello!" he said with an accent that Elinor couldn't quite place, "And welcome to Mr. Mumbles' Madhouse of Merriness!"

'_This guy really loves alliteration, doesn't he?'_ Elinor thought to (possibly) her annoying little voice (it didn't respond, by the way).

"Hey, Mr. Mumbles," Misery greeted, "This is—"

"No, no, wait, let me guess..." said Mr. Mumbles, putting a finger to his chin and squinting hard at Elinor, "You look like a... Brittany?"

Elinor shook her head.

"Amy?"

Another shake.

"Devi?"

Shake.

"I'll give you a clue," Elinor said, "It's a Greek, French and Scottish name."

"Hrm..." Mr. Mumbles thought, "Greek, French and Scottish... Alisanne?"

"No."

"Elle?"

"Very close."

"Belle!"

"Colder."

"Enough already!"

Misery was the one who had snapped, "I'm going to go inside and meet Ruby. I'll see you in there when you're done playing Twenty Questions..." and then the banshee girl headed in.

Personally, Elinor was having fun with this.

"Perhaps, another clue..." Mr. Mumbles mused,***** "What do you think, Socrates?"

The frog on his head croaked in response.

"Oh, exactly what I was thinking!" Mr. Mumbles replied, "If you need help, do not hesitate to ask!"

Mr. Mumbles turned his attention back to Elinor, "How about that clue?" he asked.

"Okay..." Elinor said while pondering, "Here's one; in the French version, it means 'light'."

"Aaah," Mr. Mumbles said, "'Light'...you remind me a little of Ruby!"

That made Elinor's heart skip a beat.

Her? Like _Ruby?_

...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no.

"Unless my memory fails me," said Mr. Mumbles, "And my noggin has served me well for a _long_ time, mind you, your name must be... Eleanor, Elenor, or Elinor!"

"What's the difference?"

"Oh, it's the way they're spelt, dearest."

"ELINOR!"

The girl looked up diagonally to where the voice of Frank and Len had called out. They were riding a rollercoaster. A huge, packed-to-the-rafters-with-loopty-loops-and-twists-and-turns rollercoaster.

"IT'S GREAT TO SEE YOU'RE HERE!" Frank called, almost screamed, to Elinor while he was practically being thrown around.

"YEAH!" Len followed up, enjoyed every minute of the ride with wide eyes, "WE THOUGHT YOU WEREN'T SO BIG ON KILLER TRILLS!"

"Um," Elinor said.

"WHAT?!" the two guitarists shouted.

"NOTHING!" Elinor roared back.

"WOOOO!"

Elinor suddenly noticed Iris was in the seat right next to Frank and Len, unsurprisingly, screaming her head off.

"THIS. IS. AWESOME!" she shouted with her lungs on full capacity.

'_I think I'll go for the less crazy rides...'_ Elinor thought.

"You know, Skull Boy helped me create that rollercoaster," Mr. Mumbles said to Elinor.

"Hm?" Elinor said just coming back, "Oh, really?"

"Oh, yes," Mr. Mumbled replied enthusiastically, "He's quite the Jack of all Trades. Only problem is he cannot stay with one thing for a serious period of time, the poor boy..."

"Having an unlimited amount of talents... is _bad?"_ Elinor asked more to herself than Mr. Mumbles.

Mr. Mumbles leaned on his cane, and looked at Elinor with slight sadness in his black and white eyes.

"You don't know, do you?"

Elinor returned Mr. Mumbles look of sadness with a look that said, 'No, before I came here I read a book depicting the life of everybody who lived here (sarcastic face)'.

"My apologies, I just assumed," Mr. Mumbles said, rising up his hands (one holding his cane) in surrender.

"You see," he said, "Skull Boy has amnesia;***** he doesn't remember where on Earth he came from. Well, before he was a skeleton, I mean. They first thing he remembers is waking up one day in the middle of that big mansion," Mr. Mumbles gestured down the pathway, where the monolith of a house was _still_ visible, "Poor lad doesn't even remember if he has any family."

'_So that would explain the whole, "I think I might be related to a long line of librarians!" thing came from...'_ thought Elinor.

"Ah well," Mr. Mumbles continued, "If you ask me he has all the family he needs," he smiled and looked at the monster children screaming with terror and excitement of the rollercoaster.

'_Family...'_ Elinor thought, _'Kinda sounds like that "friend" word... maybe they have something in common?'_

"Come on, Elinor!"

Elinor looked up from the ground to see Ruby standing from inside The Madhouse of Merriment, "Don't just stand out there all day! Come on in and have some fun!"

Elinor smiled to herself.

"Coming!" she shouted after her.

* * *

***- Sometimes El' can't really find the right words (Elinor: YOU'RE the author, hypocrite!) SHUT UP!**

***-STOP JUDGING, ELINOR! How many times do I have to tell you?!**

***-Hey! Alliteration!**

***-I just want to say; This is just what I think Skull Boy's thing is... and, well, since it was never really specified in the cartoon I thought I would just provide my own explanation! If it upsets anyone, please don't maaaaad! *hides***

**WHOO! That chapter was LONG! I guess I just had WAY TOO MUCH FUN writing Mr. Mumbles' parts (happy, Alice? ;3)! And also, I would like to thank Lichy-Lichy for reminding me about Socrates. Lil' froggy on his head... ^^**

**Looks like this VOICE is getting worse! Will it lead to something bad? Will Elinor put everyone around her in jeopary? WILL SHE BE MORE OF A GROUCH IN THE NEXT CHAPTER?!**

**Duh! Duh! And, let's HOPE not!**

**Ruby Gloom (and Batman) does not belong to me!**

**But Elinor does!**

**Thank you for reading! :3**


	8. What Does it MEAN!

**OH MY GOD GUYS I'M SORRY I'M A DAY LATE OH GOSH I'M SORYYYYYYY!**

**I just FINALLY saw "The Nightmare Before Christmas" over the weekend, LOVED IT, and now I'm CRAZY about it! I can't... stop... drawing... Jack... SKELLINGTON... GAH. N'aw well. :3**

**Enjoy this new chapter! Now, before you go and read, I have something to tell you; our favourite two headed teen sings a song in this chapter, and it has the same rythm as the one they sing in the episode, "Unsung Heroes". This was my first time writing a lil' song, so if it needs a little patching up, don't be shy!**

**Now, ENJOY!**

* * *

Elinor sat in her bedroom.

'_Wow,'_ she thought, _'MY bedroom... that sounds nice.'_

She flopped down backwards onto the fluffy mattress, easily being able to lie on it sideways due to its king size. It was _her_ fluffy, king sized mattress.

"It feels nice to _own_ something," she thought aloud, "I've never really owned something before."

She stared at the ceiling from her comfortable position on the bed. It was light blue, almost crystalline. She really liked that colour; it was so calming and welcoming...

"You know," she said to herself, "for once in my life, I think I'm at peace. It's a good feeling."

_**But you **_**know**_** it won't last forever.**_

"Listen, you!" Elinor snapped, "You've overstayed your welcome, whoever you are! Just get out of my head, and go somewhere we people will actually _appreciate_ you!"

_**Elinor, you stupid girl, I AM you.**_

"... Say _what?"_

_**You remember when you lived the life that so many others had only imagined. You remember that the sight of any sentient life made you run away in fear.**_

"What're you getting at, oh voice of rudeness?"

_**What I'm **_**getting**_** at, is that you're with the wrong crowd. They ought not to be trusted.**_

"Mate, that ship sailed a _while_ ago. These kids have shown me that they're too _innocent_ of the outside world to cause any real damage. Besides, they would've captured me by—"

_**THIS ISN'T SOME MATTER OF GOVERNMENT ISSUES, YOU IGNORANT BRAT! These children are gaining your trust, and that always leads to a bight in the back. You should know all about **_**that**_**.**_

Elinor felt a pang of guilt.

Yes. _Oh_ yes, she knew _exactly_ what (Or who)her voice was talking about. Her old 'partner', Georgia: the one who turned out to be not quite right in the head. And by that, I mean the deadly kind.

"They're not like her," Elinor growled, "I'd be able to sense crazy like that a mile away now."

_**You're still not seeing the point, dear old Ellie.**_

"Don't call me that."

_**It's not the **_**children**_** you should be wary of messing up. It's YOU.**_

"What?"

SLAM!

Elinor practically died of shock when _her_ bedroom door was slammed open, to reveal a MASSIVE speaker shoved into the middle of her room. After the speaker came the two headed teen, Frank and Len!

"Hey!" they greeted in unison.

"We noticed that we haven't written a song for ya, El!" said Frank.

"So," continued Len, "We made one!"

"A song?" Elinor tried to ask, but was blown away almost instantly by the sound of guitar chords being amplified through the speaker.

Already, the boys began to sing the song.

_Elinor, Elinor  
Is she a manticore?  
Or is she something more?  
Oh, Elinor_

_She is not, she is not  
She's not a tightly tied knot  
Like she might think  
Oh, Elinor_

_To us she, to us she  
Can be one of the  
Best of friends can be  
Oh, Elinor_

_Elinor, Elinor  
Oh, Elinor_

The brothers finished the song with a final note, then bowed their heads. Elinor just sat there, and stared.

"So, whad'ya think?" asked Frank.

"D'ya like it?" added Len.

Elinor stumbled around in her thoughts. Yes, she _really_ liked it! But... she didn't want to sound like she was an attention hog. Ruby told her it was impolite to keep on wanting more.

"I..." Elinor fumbled for the right word, "... I really like it!"

'_ELINOR YOU SOUNDED LIKE IDIOT! WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO YOURSELF?_ GAH!'*****

"Killer!" the brothers shouted.

After the boys had left the room, and left Elinor all to herself again, she could help but wonder; What exactly did her little voice _mean_ when it had said, 'It's not the children you should be wary of messing up. It's YOU.'

Elinor then suddenly realised; Frank and Len used the word 'friend' in their song.

Friend... _Friend..._

What in the world did that word MEAN? Why was she stuck with this voice?! And why, oh why, was it constantly WARNING HER?

* * *

***-She thought she sounded like a ditzy widdle girl saying that. But _I_ thought it was cute!**

**Mmhm, mmhm, mmhm... Huh? WHAT? Oh yeah! It's kinda short!**

**Well, I wanted to centre this chappie on Elinor and her voice, mostly, so I thought that I would place the song in there to make up for short-ness.**

**...**

_**There are few who deny  
That what I do I am the best  
For my talents are renowed far and wide**_

_**When it comes to surprises  
In the moonlit night  
I excel without ever even trying...**_

**GAH! CAN'T GET IT OUT OF MY HEEEEAAAD!**

**Ruby Gloom doesn't belong to me (and neither does TNBC, heh)**

**But Elinor does.**

**See ya next time!**


	9. Caught

**Boys and girls of every age  
Wouldn't you like to see something stange?  
Come with us and you will see  
This, our town of Halloween!**

**Hey guys! Okay, this chapter, things are about to get SERIOUS. 8| Also, I have now become an official crazed fan of TNBC. ALL HAIL THE PUMPKIN KING!**

**Ehem... anyway, I'm REALLY excited about these next few chapters! TENSIONNNNNNN YES. Let's take a dive into Gloomsville, and see what in the world is going to happen, yes? Let's go! **

* * *

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day...

These were the words spiralling inside Elinor's head as she stood staring out the tall and skinny windows of the dining room. It was storming up a gale outside, the wind roaring, the rain pelting, and the thunder and lightning clashing. Normally, Elinor would have been hiding underneath her bed, or her sheets, in fear. However, her mind was occupied.

She had spent the remainder of the night previous pondering what in the world the mysterious 'friend' word meant. From what she could gather it had some kind of relation to family, so obviously it had some sort of sentimentality involved with it. But was it a noun? Adjective? Verb? So many questions buzzing around her confused mind... And that banging sound wasn't helping in the least.

Wait...

Banging sound?

Elinor whipped her head up to attention. She pricked her ears to listen in on her surroundings, silently scanning her perimeter. She waited...

Bang-bang-bang.

There it was again! It was coming from outside!

Elinor felt a frosty feeling creeping around the bottom of her chest, and warning bells were sounding in her mind. Why was _that_ happening? She thought she had convinced herself that this WASN'T a trap...

But maybe that wasn't what was bothering her. Perhaps this was a new kind of threat—No, not threat. It was an unknown... thing. That was all. Now, if she could _just_ learn how to quiet those warning bells...

Elinor walked over to the front doors of the mansion, intending to go outside and investigate. She reached her hand out for the doorknob, when she heard someone yelp;

"Elinor? What are you _doing?!"_

It was Ruby. Of course.

Elinor turned her head around to face the red headed girl. She was standing on the top of the staircase, her left arm resting on the railings. Her face showed utter shock.

"I was just..." Elinor thought of a good enough reason for her to go outside when there was a life threatening storm raging outside. Ruby beat her to it.

"Are you _insane?_" she accused, her eyes full of worry, "If you were out there for ten seconds the wind would rip your wings right off!"

'_Well, I guess there _is_ that...'_ Elinor pondered, feeling a little sheepish.

Ruby made her way down the staircase, "What in the world made you want to go gallivanting out there?" she pressed, visibly concerned.

"And tell the truth," she added.

Elinor remained silent for a few seconds. Who gave _her_ permission to tell Elinor what to do? It wasn't like the girl was the boss of her...

Elinor felt annoyance bubbling in her like poison. Dangerous, uncontrollable, poison. Elinor looked at the ground for a few moments, then slowly looked up to Ruby, and glowered for a brief minute. Then suddenly, all these horrible thoughts flashed through Elinor's mind: _Get her, rip her! Tear her apart! Make her sorry!_

Elinor started hyperventilating. She hadn't thought such thoughts as this since... since...

"Elinor..." Ruby said slowly, "Why are you bearing your teeth?"

BANG!

The front door flew off its hinges in an eardrum-killing blast! The force of the explosion knocked both Ruby and Elinor off their feet, sending them flying across the room. The second the doors collapsed, ear splitting wind came screaming through the archway, along with rock-hard rain blowing hundreds of miles an hour.

Elinor looked up from her crumpled position on the ground, where she had crashed into the wall and made a rather large hole. Squinting her eyes as to not let them be stung by the rain droplets, she managed to make out a few blurry figures standing at the entrance to the mansion.

"Target has been successfully hit," she made out one of them say with a gruff Australian accent, "And now moving on to secure the rest of the perimeter."

If Elinor had been feeling insecure a few moments ago, it was nothing compared to how she felt now.

They'd caught her.

* * *

Skull Boy was in his observatory styled room, trying desperately to read his book over the raging weather. Unlike the rest of the Mansion's children, he wasn't into drama like books. No, he was more into encyclopaedias and text books. _They_ actually made you smarter.*** **But they were a lot easier to read if you didn't have to put up with constant rumbling thunder...

Skull Boy sighed a little in exasperation and turned a page. He was about to continue reading when he suddenly heard an unearthly BOOM come from downstairs. The skeleton boy immediately snapped his book shut, jumped out of his coffin styled bed, and began to race downstairs. He swore, if this was another one of Iris' shenanigans, he and Ruby would have to fix it. Again.

However, when the skeleton boy _did_ run down the stairs and through the hallways to find the source of the boom, he saw something that only made him _wish_ it was one of Iris' accidents. The scene that he saw from his position from round the corner of the top stairs of the entrance room was chaotic. Not only was there wind blowing hard and rain whipping around in every direction, but the front doors had been blown right off their hinges. Strange men were investigating the room, upturning furniture and waving what looked like metal detectors around the room. Elinor was lying in a hole in the wall about three feet away from where Skull Boy stood, and right next to Elinor was—

"RUBY!"

As soon as he said it, Skull Boy slapped a hand to his mouth. All of the men in the room turned their heads in Skull Boys direction. If Skull Boy had blood, it would have turned to ice.

One of the men raised and arm and pointed to the skeletal child.

"Cease him," he ordered.

* * *

***-Oh, come now, Skulls! You'd LIKE Harry Potter! (I can sense my inner rabid fangirl going ballistic...)**

**DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN! Elinor has been CAUGHT! LEGASP! And now, not just SHE is in trouble! Talk about an unexpected turn of events! This is probably what her annoying little voice had been warning her about... *gulp***

**Ruby Gloom DOES NOT BELONG TO ME.**

**But Elinor does, and so do the stange men with Australian accents. :3**

**See ya next time!**


	10. First Meetings With the Enemy

**Well, well, well, what have we here?  
A new chapter, huh? Oooh, I'm really scared!**

**... No, seriously, I'm scared. 0_0**

**VAT IS DAS? I'm EARLY? Oh my goodness gracious me! THE WORLD'S GONE CRAZY! AAAAAHHH! ... Okay, I'm fine now. :3**

**Anyway, yep! Imma day early! Well, I just enjoyed writing this chapter SO MUCH that I may or my not have devoted some of my time writing this when I SHOULD have been working on my English and Science assignents, uheh... ^^" BUT, besides that, I'm actually REALLY PROUD of how this turned out! OMG I love writing so much!**

**Wwwwow, I'm sounding like a giddy little girl... which is pretty much what I am at heart! :)**

* * *

Dark. That was all Elinor's mind comprehended. Where was she? How long had she been like this? These were questions that she needed answers to. Desperately.

The last thing she remembered was a massive explosion, some strange people with Australian accents, a storm and… Ruby. _What_ the _Hell_ had she been _thinking?_ Ruby was a nice girl! All she had done since they had met by the party table was help Elinor; why did she go and bare her fangs at her? She couldn't be _that_ mean… could she?

Elinor sighed (or at least she thought she did). Maybe she _was_ better off running away from the world: no friends, no family, no nothin'. She couldn't risk the lives of anyone who helped her, or was nice to her. She wouldn't have been able to _live_ with herself if something bad… had happened… to them…

'_Oh my God,'_ she thought to herself, panic surging through her, _'Jesus Christ, Lord Almighty… what happened to everyone else?!'_ she was now, or at least she assumed, hyperventilating (again), _'Were they captured too? Oh, please no, please no, please no, _please no_…'_

Those monster kids were innocent! If they were going through heck knew what, it would all be ELINOR'S fault!

At that point in time, Elinor had managed to work herself up into a state of overdrive. Her brain felt like it was on fire, her limbs like electricity was shooting through them, her stomach as if it had tightened up like a rubber band. She fought whatever darkness she was in, like something was forcing her to keep her eyes shut, and not move. Fight it! Fight it! _Fight it!_

Click!

A light bulb flickered on revealing where Elinor was. As it turned out, she had only been chained to a wall in an extremely dark room. Oh.

"Good," said a female voice, "You're awake."

Elinor looked up from where she had been staring at the ground (without realising it a few moments ago), to glare at a women who looked to be in her early thirties. She had her light blonde hair tied into a neat bun, and she was wearing a business suit.

'_Great. A _suit_,'_ Elinor thought.

The women looked like she had an air of authority about her, like she owned the place. Knowing Elinor's luck, she probably did.

"We've been tracking you for quite a while," said the lady, with a creepily chipper voice, "You certainly know how to avoid detection."

She paused to see Elinor's reaction. She replied by hissing with her forked tongue.

The women continued, "We must admit, we were surprised when we found you inside an old Victorian mansion with… others," she said the last word like it tasted bad to pronounce it.

Elinor felt her anger again. This time it felt like it was burning away in her stomach, and eating the bottom of her lungs. She swore, if she wasn't chained up…

"You don't seem to be very talkative," the lady commented, piercing her eyes a little, "Perhaps you're less intelligent than we thought."

'_OOOOOOH YOU DID _NOT_ JUST SAY THAT!'_ was what Elinor _wanted_ to say. However, she did an amazing feat and managed to control her anger for once: it wasn't professional to lose your anger in front of your captives. She had had plenty of experience with _that_.

"I don't talk very much to people that I don't like," Elinor growled.

The lady, instead of looking threatened, simply smirked a little and wrote something down in a notebook.

"You mustn't like very many people, then," the lady said.

Elinor remained silent.

"Where are the others?" she hissed after a while of staring each other down.

"Oh, don't worry," said the lady, "They're quite alright. As long as you cooperate, your friends will stay that way."

BOOM. Elinor lost it.

She lurched as far as the chains would allow, snarling and hissing, trying to claw her way out of her chains in frenzy. She hated this woman. _Hated her._

"Now, now," the woman said, as if she were a mother calming a child throwing a tantrum, "Just behave. You wouldn't want anything to happen to your friends, now would you?"

Elinor breathed heavily, in and out. In and out. She was glaring at the woman with all the anger and predatorial strength she could muster. Slowly, she closed her mouth and relaxed her muscles.

"Good girl," the woman said. And with that she left the room, turning off the light as she went, drowning Elinor once again in darkness...

Only to leave her in her confusion; the lady had addressed all the kids from the mansion as 'her friends'. Well, at least this would give her something to think about while she was stuck here...

Ruby groaned. There was a searing pain in the back of her head, and her arm felt like a knife was shoved into it. She looked around with her blurry vision, and could make out some vertical bars. Wait, what?

Ruby tried to stand up, only to have her head whack an extremely low roof. She covered her now pumping-with-pain head, and looked around again. She looked like she was in some kind of... cage? Why would she be, of all places, in a _cage?_ It just didn't make sense.

"Ruby?"

The red head perked up instantly at the mention of her name, for she knew exactly whom it had come from. Right across her, on the other side of a bar wall, was Skull Boy.

"Ruby!" he cried, crawling over as fast as he could to the happiest girl in the world, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Skull Boy," Ruby lied. Actually, she was in quite a lot of pain. But just the sight of Skull Boy made her heart beat so much faster.

"Do you know what's happening?" Skull Boy asked Ruby, anxiousness in his eyes and voice.

"I don't know," Ruby said, truthfully this time, "Where's everyone else?"

"I don't know where they are," Skull Boy said, "Either that or we're the only ones here... I'm just so happy to see you, Ruby!"

At that, Ruby felt her cheeks blush. Then a thought crossed her mind, and suddenly she sat up straight, almost bumping her head again.

"Where's Elinor?" she asked.

Skull Boy was quiet for a moment. Ruby felt the atmosphere around them tense up.

"They took Elinor away," Skull Boy said, "I don't know where, but they injected something in her; I think it was some kind of sleeping syndrome..." Skull Boy looked off into space in thought.

"Why would they only be interested in Elinor?" Ruby wondered.

"Maybe they'll come back for us," Skull Boy said, sounding worried.

"Hey," Ruby said with her reassuring voice on, "It'll to be okay, Skull Boy. It's going to be okay."

Ruby pushed her fingers through the bars into Skull Boy's side. Skull Boy pushed his bony, gloved hands up against hers and they looked into each other's eyes.

"Alright, Ruby," Skull Boy said, "I believe you."

It pained Ruby that she didn't have the heart to tell Skull Boy that Elinor had tried to potentially hurt her right before the strange men showed up.

* * *

**ELINOR WHAT HAVE YOU GOTTEN EVERYONE INTO?!**

**Ehem... Well! It seems that the only thing we have gathered from who these people are from this chapter is that they know what they're doing, they don't give their 'guests' very nice rooms, and they wear SUITS (Suits are never a good sign, unless you're Jack Skellington or James Bond. ]8|).**

**I originally planned on making this chapter longer, but I have this three to four page limit on my chapters, for some strange reason, so I might also post something up tomorrow as well, if I can coax my brain into it...**

**Thank you for reading! Please don't forget to leave a review, if you like!**

**Ruby Gloom and all participating characters DO NOT BELONG TO MOI.**

**However, Elinor DOES.**

**...**

**And so do the mysterious Australian monster-hunting people (Or do they? -.0)**

**See ya!**


	11. Old 'Friends'

**Hey again! Now we're really thick into the story, here. We're about to meet someone who will just ADD to the maddness!**

* * *

"Frank?"

_What was happening?_

"Frank!"

_Was this a dream? If so, why did it feel like someone had drilled a hole through his head?_

"FRANK!"

_Why was it so dark? Wait... what had happened just a few moments ago? _Was_ it just a few moments ago? Or was it much longer than that? How long had he been like this?_

"_FRANK!_"

"WHAT Len?!"

The blue guitarist snapped open his eyes to see his green brother staring at him, worry etched into his face.

"You were asleep!" Len exclaimed, "I thought you were dead!"

"Len, I were dead you would be too," Frank said, like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Oh."

The brothers were quiet for a few seconds, before they realised that they weren't in their own bed.

"Frank..."

"Yeah, Len?"

"Do you know where we are?"

Frank looked at his beloved brother sincerely, before sighing.

"I don't know Len," he said downheartedly, "I don't know."

Len looked like his entire world had been shaken upside down.

...

Elinor had been hanging by her limbs in that God-forsaken room for heck knew how long. All she had to entertain herself with was wondering what that dang 'Friend' word meant. Sometimes, when she thought that she was just a step away from the answer, it would slip away. It was maddening. And annoying.

Then there was the crazily unsettling feeling of guilt that had wound its way into the pit of Elinor's stomach. Lovely.

But seriously, _what_ had happened to the kids? She hoped with all her might they were okay; if they did ANYTHING to those monster children, they would have all _Hell_ to pay from her.

Well, they _would,_ if she wasn't chained up to a wall. In a dark room... where she couldn't see.

Wait a minute. She couldn't see... but she had cat eyes! She _should_ be able to see, but for some twisted reason, she couldn't! Why was _that?_

Elinor could feel herself panicking now. Had they done something to Elinor while she had been asleep? Was she not only unable see in the dark, but wasn't able to other things as well? Other, more important things? Like walking?

'_Okay, Elinor, calm down,'_ she told herself, _'Nothing is ever solved by panicking. You need to keep a cool head, otherwise you're doomed.'_

_**So, you **_**do**_** learn.**_

'_Oh great. You're back.'_

_**I tried to warn you.**_

'_So I was being hopeful; sue me.'_

_**You should only be so lucky.**_

'_... Okay, what does _that _mean?'_

_**Someone you **_**know**_** is coming to 'visit'. I told her you were in trouble, and she owes you.**_

Elinor's heart stopped beating for a second. Her blood felt like it had turned to ice. No. It couldn't be. The voice in her head hadn't, _couldn't,_ have called _her_ to come get her... had it?

_**I can do many things, Elinor. I am only a **_**part**_** of you. I'm also part of your other half.**_

Elinor didn't make any reply.

_**I'm only trying to help. I'll see you later.**_

And her mind was silent. Well, silent from any voice not belonging to her, that is.

...

"How long has it been, Skull Boy?"

Skull Boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a little watch. "Forty-five minutes," he answered glumly.

Ruby forced back a sigh, and instead forced a hopeful little smile. "Maybe something'll happen soon?" she suggested in hopes to cheer her best friend up.

"Yeah," Skull Boy said half heartedly, "Maybe."

...

CRASH.

Both children swore they saw their entire lives flash right before their eyes, as their hearts almost exploded with surprise.

As Ruby and Skull boy sat frozen in place, they heard several cries of nearby men.

"What IS that?!"

"Call for backup!"

"I thought they were all secure?!"

"No!"

"Don't come near me!"

"AAAAAGGGHHH!"

Ruby was certain she was going to have some kind of heart failure after all this.

Then, suddenly, all the cries came to a sudden stop. Everything became quiet.

_Very_ quiet.

The red headed girl and the skeleton boy glanced at each other in anxiety. _Now_ what was happening?

As if on cue, to answer their question, the opening of a door could be heard from down the hall. It reminded Ruby of one of the episodes of the soap opera she listened to; only this time it was in real life, and much more terrifying.

Skull Boy, being a brave soul, tried to stand up without banging his head on the low ceiling and called out, "Who's there?!"

Skull Boy was answered by quick footsteps rushing towards him, stopping just outside the boy's cage. Said skeletal child could see the cause of the steps as two, black, clawed feet. They resembled Elinor's, accept, the talons looked a lot more like claws. And they also looked more... ferocious.

"Well, well, well," said a strangely, crazily, unnervingly, _happy,_ feminine voice, "Looks like you're some of Ellie's friends!"

Skull Boy looked over at Ruby for answers, only getting a confused look back. Ruby turned her head to the clawed feet, and shakily asked, "Wh-who are you?"

"Hasn't dear old Ellie told you about me?" said the voice, "I'm here ta' pay off a dept!"

The sound of claws being sharpened could be heard from above the cage. Then, following that, an awful, ear splitting scraping noise was heard from the ceiling. The next thing both the children knew, two holes had been cut clean through the concrete. They peeked out of the cage to see something that made Ruby almost gasp; it was another one of Elinor! Except, this one had zigzag-y horns, messy hair that was tied up into an equally messy pony tail, talons on the end of her leather wings, a much more dangerous looking barb on the end of her tail, a smile showing razor sharp fangs, and crazy, brown eyes. She was wearing a green jumper with a red scarf. Both the clothing had many rips and tears, and the jumper had three rips in particular going across her stomach, as if something had clawed her there. The scarf seemed to be moving on its own, as if it was floating through water, like it was alive...

"I'm Georgia!" she said.

* * *

**HAHAHAHAH! YES! I have been DYING to FINALLY bring Georgia in! She is rediculously fun to write for! We seem to have learneed more about this voice of Elinor's. Apparently it belongs to Georgie too? What's this thing that Elinor has been injected with?**

**See ya next time!**

**Ruby Gloom and all participating charters DO NOT BELNG TO MEH!**

**But Elinor, Georgia, and most likely the monster-hunting jerks DO!**

**Thank you for reading, and please leave a review if you like!**


	12. Rescued, Yet?

**AAAAAND we're back! Hey! Guess who watched Aladdin for the first time in about a year? ME! And I've realised I LOVE GENIE! Ehem, anywaaay, here's a nice, LONG chapter! Let's found out a little bit more what this 'Georgia' is like, shall we?**

* * *

Ruby and Skull Boy stared at Georgia.

So, _this_ was the old 'partner' of Elinor's. They kind of understood why Elinor split up from her just by _looking_ at her. She certainly seemed like the type of person to be a little off their rocker.

"What're you two goggling at?" Georgia asked, giggling a little in that creepy way of hers, "It's not like you haven't seen an Ain before, HAHA!"

"A... what?" Skull Boy asked, a little hesitantly.

"An Ain!" Georgia repeated, flinging her arms out in dramatic gesture, "It's what me an' Ellie called ourselves! Ains!"

The two little monster children glanced at each other quizzically, before turning back to the clearly crazy girl.

"So... will you take us to Elinor now, please?"Ruby asked.

"Oh, of _course!_" Georgia replied, "I could recognise her scent anywhere! I know her better than anything on the planet!" And on that note, she marched off down the hall, while sniffing the air. She looked over her shoulder and called to the stiff children, "Aren't cha' coming?"

Realising they hadn't moved an inch, Ruby and Skull Boy hastily climbed out of their cages and hurried after Georgia. It was going to be a _long_ day.

...

"Frank! I hear something!"

"Huh? Wha—?"

Whatever Frank was going to say next was drowned out by a MASSIVE crashing noise from a few corridors away. The guitarist brothers whipped both their heads in the direction whence it came.

Not a second later, something with clawed hands dug its mighty talons into the metal walls (Key word: _metal._) and stared forming a circle. Something was trying to get in from the other side!

"What's happening, Frank?!" Len yelped frantically.

"Stay calm, Len!" Frank said in attempt to calm his terrified little bro.

The moment the claws made a large circle in the wall, the owner of the claws kicked through it.

...

"And _that,_" said Georgia, "Is how you make an entrance, kids!"

Ruby and Skull Boy jumped through the hole in the wall, and ran over to the two headed the teen.

"Frank! Len!" Ruby shouted in glee.

"You're okay!" Skull Boy cheered.

"Killer!" the two boys cried out in victory.

"Weeeell, this is all nice 'n' mushy an' all," Georgia said from her spot in front of the wall, "But we still have one more person ta' play Rescue with. C'MON!"

As the group of five raced down the hall, Georgia in the lead, they couldn't help but wonder: Why, exactly, _did_ Georgia come to rescue them? _How_ did she know that they were in trouble? Did Elinor have something to do with this?

All these questions would be answered... as _soon_ as they found Elinor. And were back home. Where they were safe. Yeah...

Suddenly, Georgia stopped dead, causing Ruby, Skull Boy, Frank and Len to all crash into each other behind her.

"ELLIE!" Georgia squealed, as she ripped open a steal door so forcefully that it flew off its hinges.

The said girl inside, hanging by her limbs on the wall snapped her head up to attention. Ruby expected Elinor to be grateful, seeing her saviour. But the expression printed on her face was the polar opposite.

"Oh," she said in a low, growling voice, "You. Yay."

"I'm _so_ happy to see you too!" Georgia said in a tone that was impossible to tell whether or not she was being sarcastic.

Elinor glared daggers at the 'Ain' across the room from her, than lowered her head and hissed, "Alright, please get me down."

"Anything fa' you!" Georgia chirped, before jumping to were Elinor was hanging and slashing open her restraints. Elinor landed on the concrete ground on all fours, then quickly stood up nice and tall. She seemed to be taller than Georgia.

"Thanks," she said in a forced voice.

"N'aw, it was nothin'!" Georgia said with her crazy grin.

"When you're done _lying_," Elinor growled, "Let's leave."

"Whoa," said Len, "Is it me, or does Elinor really _not_ like Georgia?"

"It's not just you, Len," Frank replied.

WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!

The sudden sound of alarms being set off, and all the lights turning red, made most of the monster kids very nervous. Georgia was just weird.

"Woohoo!" Georgia cheered, "FINALLY some action!"

She was about to run off, however Elinor grabbed Georgia's scarf before she could go anywhere.

"_You_ ain't going _nowhere,_" Elinor snapped to her counterpart.

"Ah-ah!" said Georgia, waving her finger, "Double negative, Ellie!"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

"Uh, guys?" Ruby interrupted, "I think we should be moving now..."

The two 'Ains' stopped their bickering for a moment, and focused on the matter at hand. At the far end of the hall, a door had been slammed open to reveal a big group of guards, all holding guns, all wearing armour, and _all_ coming for them.

"RUN!" Elinor bellowed, and pelted on all fours in the complete _opposite_ direction. The others didn't think twice about following suit.

Around that corner, down this hall, through that door, through that other door, left, right, right, left, straight, left...

Elinor was beginning to feel tired, and when she looked back to the four kids struggling to keep up, she knew that they would have to find an escape, and _soon._

"Georgia," Elinor began, in between huffs and puffs, "You found your way in here; how do we get out?"

Georgia suddenly stopped in the middle of her tracks.

"Aw, YEAH!" she suddenly shouted, "That cool voice in my head told me there was an air vent somewhere in the roof..."

Elinor pretty much imploded with anger. She knew the way out ALL ALONG, and she didn't even bother to TELL THEM? Aaarrgh!

"Hold on tight, 'cause it's gonna get bumpy!" Georgia announced, then grabbed Frank and Len in one arm, and Skull Boy in the other, "Grab Red-Head for me, will ya Ellie?"

"I said DON'T CALL ME— Oh, whatever."

Elinor picked Ruby up by the underarms, and followed Georgia up through the roof.

"Normally, we'd all fall through these vents as soon as put our weight on them," Georgia said as though they were in some sort of documentary, "But these vents are reinforced with _steel!_ Nothing's gonna break through these baby's in a hurry!"

"Hurry up and get us out of here!" Elinor and Skull Boy shouted simultaneously, before looking at each other with incredulous faces.

"Alright, alright, sheesh..." Georgia said before crawling down the vent, and into darkness.

* * *

**OooooOOOOoooh! Elinor REALLY doesn't like Georgia, does she? Wonder what Elinor did that made Georgia owe her? All of your answers MAY be answered, next time! READ AND REVIEW, PAH-LEASE!**

**Ruby Gloom and all related Characters and locations do NOT belong to me!**

**But Elinor, Georgia, and POSSIBLY the jerky monster hunters DO!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**YOU AIN'T NEVER HAD A FRIEND LIKE MEEEEE! :D**

**OKAY! OKAY! I'll stop singing now!**


	13. Intermission of Sorts

**WARNING: The following chapter is so short it may cause your brain to explode with frustration!**

**Sorry that it's REDICULOUSLY SHORT, but I was currently distracted with my own little project. *devious face* Oh yeah, and that torture to human beings that haven't reached adolescence yet, labelled by society as "School". Anyway, enjoy this ridiculously short chapter!**

As it turns out, Georgia actually _did_ know where she was going. Well, that was a relief.

Unfortunately for the group of kids, it took them TWO FREAKING HOURS TO ACTUALLY _GET OUT_.

"Thank you for choosing Ain Transport for all your travel needs," Georgia said in a mock business-woman voice, "We hope you enjoyed your trip."

And with that, Georgia opened up a hatch at the end of a tunnel, and blinding light poured through. It seemed as though the storm had passed.

"YEEEEAAAH!" Frank and Len whooped as they shot out, "FREEDOM!"

_Then_ they realised they were standing on air.

...

"Ah, cra—"

WHAM.

The double headed guitarist had plummeted nine feet down onto grassy earth.

"That's what you get for rushing ahead," Skull Boy whispered to Ruby with a humorous grin.

"Are you guys alright?" Ruby called down to Frank and Len.

"We're fine Ruby!" Frank called back up in a voice that clearly sounded the exact opposite of _fine_.

"You don't _sound_ fine," Elinor said, poking her head through the hole.

"_Come on,_ chums!" Georgia urged, "Let's get goin' before they spot us again!"

One by one, Georgia, Elinor, Skull Boy and Ruby hopped down from the air vent tunnel and onto solid ground. After a few moments, Skull Boy frowned.

"Uh, guys?" he said, catching their attention, "How're we going to get back home?"

'_Oh,' _thought Elinor, _'Didn't think of that.'_

_**You're an animal, Elinor; How do animals find their way home?**_

'_Heeey voice! Where you been?'_

_**Just answer the question.**_

'_... Fine. Well, I guess animals smell around?'_

"THEY SMELL AROUND!"

Elinor stopped herself from punching Georgia for scaring the living bageesus out of her. Again.

"Come again?" Ruby asked the crazy girl.

"Weeeell," Georgia started, "Skull Boy asked, 'How're we gonna get back home?'"- Georgia made a bad impression of the skeletal child's voice, making him scowl – "So, I thought; how do animals get back home? Well, they—"

"Smell around; yeah we get it, hypocrite."

"_Wow._" Frank said, staring at Elinor in disbelief.

"_Woooow._" Len added, staring at her too.

"What?" Elinor asked them.

"I've never seen someone... _hate_ someone else so much before," Frank answered.

"Hey," Ruby said, "'Hate's a pretty strong word, you guys. Let's just say that she 'immensely dislikes' Georgia."

"Once we're done discussing Elinor's private widdle feelings," Georgia interrupted the conversation, "Can we get a move on to finding your guys' home?"

"Aw, _hell_ no!" Elinor burst, "There is _no freaking way_ I am letting you _near_ their mansion!" she marched right up to Georgia and glared her in the face.

Georgia raised her hands up in a surrendering fashion, raised her eye brows and smirked.

"Now, now, Ellie, there's no need to—"

"AND STOP CALLING ME THAT _STUPID NAME!_" Elinor full out shouted, "Yeah, you saved us from the weird monster-hunters, and I'm kinda grateful for that, but PLEASE! Just LEAVE US ALONE NOW!"

...

It was awkward, to say the least. Elinor managed to 'scare' Georgia away, get the scent of the mansion from Ruby, and the group of five were now making their way home. The only problem was, there were now several questions dug up about the 'Ain' that _desperately_ needed answers to. Like, 'Why do you immensely dislike Georgia so much?', or, 'Hey, here's a question; how'd Georgia know that you were captured?'

Really, it was almost silly.

**AGH. DISCLAIMERS. GAH.**

**Ruby Gloom and all participating Characters and locations DO NOT BELONG TO ME-AH.**

**But Elinor an' Georgia do, YAY!**

**R&R!**


	14. What happened? Part 1

***sneaks in* I'll just submit this before anyone notices I missed last week...**

***notices you* OH! Haha, hi! Eheh... ha... aren't you HAPPY to see me? What? What do you MEAN I missed a deadline? Haha, that's redonculous!**

**Okay, fine, YOU CAUGHT ME! BUT, I DID submit something! It's called "Ping Pong", and it's a oneshot about Jhonen Vasquez's comic, "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac". If you're angry, and need calming down, take a look, please!**

**Alright, alight, enough with the long Author's Note! Here's the chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

While on the journey home, Elinor discovered that she had a knack for finding certain locations. Luckily, the Gloomsville Mansion was one of them. It had the smell of dust, first aid stuff, and (strangely) pancakes.

Unfortunately, the rest of the group didn't have Elinor's sense of smell, and therefore needed some source of entertainment. Like talking.

Skull Boy was the first to venture, he being the one who the most naturally curious.

"Hey, Elinor," the Jack-of-all-trades started, "I hope you don't mind me sticking my snout where it doesn't belong..." he paused to see Elinor's reaction. She said nothing, but shrugged for him to continue; he had his own right to ask questions.

"But, what's wrong between you and... her?"

Just not questions like that.

Elinor stopped in her sniffing, and turned to look at Skull Boy's charming face*****. She stared at him for a few moments, deciding what she should say next. Eventually, the bat-lizard-girl sighed and faced the rest of the group, who were eagerly awaiting her answer.

"Georgia and I... well, I've already told you how we were partners," the monster kids nodded, "And then I told you how she did things _differently_ than I did?" The kids nodded once more. "Well... there's a _bit_ more to it than that."

She sat down on her hindquarters as a motion for the rest to get comfortable.

**...**

You see, me and Georgia both come from the same place; a laboratory in the middle of Australia. They were basing us on designs of other creatures; they thought they were some kind of otherworldly force... Anyway, they created artificial DNA, combining the genes of humans, reptiles, ungulates, and bats. Georgia and I were two of the few successes. I don't know what happened to the rest.

When we were first created, we were feeble little infants. I don't really remember anything until around what I _think_ was my ninth birthday. What I _do_ remember though, was that I was... I was a...

...

A monster.

I couldn't think. I couldn't feel. I couldn't wonder why. All I ever thought was 'Kill! Kill! Kill!' They had to inject something in me, just to put me to sleep every night. The second they woke me up, I'd be ravenous for something to tear apart.

I'm not proud.

I don't know how it happened, and I'm not entirely sure when it exactly _did, _but one day when I woke up, the first thing I thought wasn't death-related. I remember thinking, "Where am I?"

The doctors were astounded. Apparently, my thinking independently wasn't planned whatsoever. Any humanity I was supposed to have left should have been drowned out by animal instinct. But, scientists being scientists, they wanted to see what else I could do. But, know that I could _think_, well... let's just say that was the time when I developed my distaste for being told what to do.

**...**

"Hold up," Len interrupted, "I thought we were talking about you and Georgia, here?"

Elinor swallowed down anger and annoyance from being interrupted, "I had to give you some background first, before I actually started on the _story._ Sorry I didn't warn you, first."

"It's okay, Elinor," Ruby reassured, "Keep going; we'll listen!"

Elinor smiled. That girl was such a nice kid...

"Alright," she continued, "Now, as I was saying..."

**...**

When I showed signs of a rebellious attitude, the scientists started... punishing me. At first, they sprayed me with water; nothing too serious. But, when I still didn't do exactly as I was told, they began giving me small zaps from an electric stick-thingy. That kept me in line, but they never reverted back to water spraying if I stepped out of it (the line, I mean).

Then, eventually, they decided it was time that I met Georgia. Or, as they called her, 'Success #2'.

She was almost as bad as me. Before I started thinking, I mean. She was an insane piece of work, and she still _is_, mind you, but she was able to _decide_ when to go crazy. But her level of craziness wasn't what made her better than me. It was her physical attributes. She could run faster, jump higher, lift heavier, and fly longer than I could by _miles_.

The way they introduced us, was by restraining Georgia and putting us in a big white room. Alone. They spoke to us (or _me_, more so) by some kind of radio-microphone-thingo.

They said, "_Successful experiment mark 1, please meet successful experiment mark 2_."

Georgia just looked at me. It was the kind of look animals give you when they're deciding whether or not you're a threat. Eventually she settled for 'good' (I guess), and kind of relaxed. I was interested; I had never seen anything else like me; scales and horns and all.

I came closer to her, and I said, "Hi."

She stared at me, with those wide eyes of hers.

Then I continued, "The people in coats said that I was ready to meet you, or something. Are we supposed to talk?"

Georgia just kept on staring at me. I guessed that while she was stronger and faster, she still thought like an animal, unlike me, who had just gotten used to using my vocal cords for other things than snarling (like talking).

I heard a few of the scientists sigh over the microphone.

"_Operation 'Meet Up' has been put on hold,_" they said, "_Return Successful Experiments 1 and 2 to their quarters_."

Scientists started coming out of the doors to the white room, and began walking towards us. But then, I heard someone say—

"_Hhhiii_..."

All the scientists stopped dead in their tracks. They stared at Georgia like she had sprouted a second head (which might have been just as well).

"_Hiii..._" she said again, not taking so long with the 'H' this time.

"Um... hi?" I repeated, wondering why the scientists were all staring.

Georgia just kept staring at me, looking like she was really concentrating.

"_Hi,_" she said again, looking like she was straining, "... Hi. Hi! HI, HI, HI, HI, HI!"

The scientists were ecstatic. They were shouting things like, "Evolutionary!" and "Faster than a parrot!" and "What else could they learn?"

To me it was all just noise. I wanted to go back to my room where I could sleep.

Two scientists lead me away from all the excitement. I looked back to see five scientists escorting Georgia away to wherever _she_ lived. She looked back at me, and smiled; a toothy, kind of creepy, smile. She looked happy. _Really_ happy. Had I made her happy? I couldn't tell. All I wanted was to get back to my room and eat dinner.

* * *

***-Just to clear this up, THERE IS NO LOVE HERE! Personally, if I was there I'd be like, "OMG! SKULL BOY!" but, I'm just letting Ellie here make an observation, dat's all! DON'T CHUCK PICKLES AT ME, PLEASE!**

**SO, we're FINALLY getting more backstory on the elusive Georgia! Hope you enjoyed reading, and don't forget to leave a review on your way out!**

**Ruby Gloom and all participting characters and locations do NOT BELONG TO ME!**

**BUT, Elinor, Georgia, and the term "Ain" (and possibly the scientists) DO!**

**See ya!**


	15. Announcement!

A stage was lit up, revealing polished and waxed floor boards, with big red curtains drooping on top of them. The curtains were closed, hiding whatever, or _who_ever, was behind them. A few moments passed, and the curtains gradually lifted to expose the host.

It was Elinor.

...

Uh...

Elinor was just leaning against the wall, cleaning her sharp fingernails/talons. She glanced the hundreds of people, all STARING at her, with her catlike eyes, and froze up like a statue.

"Uuhh..." she stuttered, feeling like she could sweat a waterfall (ew).

"...Hi?" she finally finished, raising up and hand and giving it a tiny wave.

The audience began booing. Poor Elinor...

"Oh! Elinor!"

A girl ran on stage and over to the shocked and terrified bat-lizard-girl.

"What are you doing here?" the girl asked, concerned.

"I-I was just looking for a place to clean my talons..." Elinor quietly murmured to the girl.

Speaking of, the girl who had just entered the stage had long brownish-blonde hair. She wore a sleeveless white top with black splotches on the front, mixed in with diamantes in swirly shapes. She had a denim skirt on, reaching to just above her knees, with buttons all the way down the middle. She was about five foot six.

"Who're you?" a random voice shouted out from the audience.

"I'm Aingirl!" the girl called back, "And I gotta say, talking to you all is a LOT more nerve racking than I expected... ANYWAY! I'm here to tell you all, that as of Saturday, the eighth of December (2012), I have been on CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS! And in Australia, we have our seasons the other way round (when you have Winter, we have Summer), so I basically on SUMMER BREAK! Yay! So, I'm going to take a break from this here story."

She pauses for a second to catch her breath, then continues.

"I also seem to be getting writer's block, concerning Ruby Gloom. No hard feelings, Rubes!"

"No problem!" Ruby calls from one of the V.I.P. seats.

"So, while I'm over the hollies, I'm going to go on a Ruby Gloom MARATHON, to get back my desire to write! Also, I'm working on another story that's yet to be published. I'm having PLENTY of fun writing that one too, but I'm going to write a few more chappies before I post it up, therefore giving me a head start and HOPEFULLY avoiding missing my deadline (It's always gonna be Sunday, Aussie time, by the way)."

Elinor gave Aingirl a strange look.

"Wait a minute," she said, "If you're the writer... YOU were the one who made me lead the monster hunters to the mansion!"

"Yeah!" shouted Skull Boy (sitting next to Ruby in the V.I.P. section), "AND you were the one who almost got Ruby killed!"

Aingirl suddenly loses her cool composure and noticeably starts to panic.

"Uh, heh, l-let's not overreact, here!" she yelps, "Remember, I have Author Powers! I can write you all stranded on an Island in the middle of nowhere!"

"You won't do that," Misery drawled, "You'd invoke the wrath of angry readers. And you like Frank and Len too much."

"Wah?" Frank and Len pipe up.

Aingirl looks neigh hysterical now.

"OKAY GUYS, SEE YOU AFTER THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS, BYE!" she hurriedly shouts to the audience, before bolting backstage and screaming for someone named Sammy to help her.


	16. What Happened? Part 2

***Kicks down door***

**Guess who's BACK?! 8D**

**And I'm better than ever! My writing skills have improved, my experince is growing like a teenage boy, and I'm here to give you a long-awaited UPDATE! Now, before you all rush to read it, I have ANOTHER announcement! I thought that I would be able to write better chapters if I didn't give myself a deadline, because the constant thought that I have to get something done hanging over my head might suck at my creative juices.**

**SO, these updates are going to be completely random, and hopefully don't take three months! ^^'' ALSO, this chatper is pretty short, but I wanted to post something up before I lost interest again! I'm counting on you guys to help keep me interested!**

**Now, let the story COMMENCE!**

* * *

About a week had passed. The scientists were still over-psyched about my acceleration in humanoid intelligence. The day would be split into two halves; physical training and mental training. The physical training was almost the same as what they used to do with me before I became sane; they let me loose into a room full of dummies. Except, this time, they gave me instructions. For example, the green dummies meant I had to find I way to rip off their heads in one second, while the blue dummies meant I had to dislocate three of their limbs in two seconds. If I failed to accomplish the instructions in time, they would zap me. I became pretty good at that rather quickly.

The mental training was a whole different matter. They put me in a different room, this one much smaller than the physical training room, and sat me down in front of a small desk. It was kind of like an iPad on legs, there being a touch-screen on top instead of wood. Something like a slideshow would play across the small screen, showing shapes and pictures, with little puzzles for me to figure out. The puzzles where simple things like, "Which one of these is a circle?" and "Is 'Lucy' a noun, or a proper noun?". Over time, the puzzles got harder, but nothing that I couldn't handle.

Eventually, the scientists decided it was time for me and Georgia to meet up again. Personally, I was a little less eager than the scientists were about our meeting-up. I was still interested to meet the only other member of my kind, but I was also a little wary. There was just something about that seemed... off.

They did the same thing they did last time. They restrained Georgia, but didn't bother with me. They left us alone in the same white room again, and this time Georgia looked insanely happy to see me.

I wasn't sure what I had to do, again, so I just went with the first thing that popped into my mind.

"Hello," I said uncertainly.

"HI!" Georgia practically screamed in excitement. "I learn new wordssz!"

I couldn't help but notice how much she hissed her 'S's.

"That's... great," I said, starting to feel really uncomfortable.

"Grreeaaat..." she mimicked, her wacky smile never leaving her face.

"Uh... yeah."

Now I started to really want to leave the room.

"I like you," Georgia said to me, her eyes nearly bulging out of her head, "You're niccczce. Not like mean people in white coatsssz..." Abruptly, her face changed from crazily happy to crazily angry.

"Mean people?" I had asked, more to myself than Georgia. "I dunno; I think they're okay."

"MEAN!" Georgia suddenly exploded, thrashing against her restraints, "MEAN, MEAN, MEEEAANN!"

"_Operation 'Meat-Up Mark two' has taken a sudden downhill,_" I heard the voice from the radio-thing say. "_Take Successful Experiments one and two back to their quarters."_

A lot happened in the next few seconds; a bunch of people in protective suits and strange looking weapons rushed in, and one of them poked a needle full of some liquid into Georgia's neck. She froze up for a second or two, before she fell limp and her eye-lids drooped.

The people in coats then came in and ushered me out of the room. It was obvious that the operation hadn't gone nearly as well as they expected.

**...**

"... And?"

Len was the one who had spoken. Elinor had stopped talking, and was just staring at the ground. When Len asked the question, Elinor just looked up and pointed her thumb behind her.

"I smell the mansion nearby," she said, a little too flatly to be normal. "Let's go before everybody there gets heart attacks."

* * *

**Hmm, getting touchy are we, Elinor? -.0**

**I hope you enjoyed this long overdue chapter! Don't forget to leave a review on your way out! ;)**

**Ruby Gloom, Skull Boy, Frank and Len do NOT belong to me.**

**BUT Elinor DOES!**

**See ya!**


	17. Escapes and Regrets

**Heya~ I know this update took me a 'BIT' longer than should be accepted, but I was a bit occupied with my new DA account (I go by the same name) and my JtHM fic, 'Lights Out'. I'm also working on a 'Slender Man' fic, but it's, uh... 'different' from most Slendy fics. XD So those are my excuses for taking so dang long to update! :D**

**Here, there is a REVEALATION! Basically, it tells us how El and Georgie get out! Enjoy!**

* * *

Elinor was about to get up and move, before a hand tugged at her torn-up sleave. She sharply turned her head to face her stopper, to see Skull Boy's face.

"No," he said, "I want to hear the rest of the story. We know where you came from and we know how you and Georgia met; you just can't end the story there!"

Elinor opened her mouth to protest, but was cut off by Len's voice.

"Yeah!" he said, backing up Skull Boy, "We wanna know!"

Ruby gave Len a look that was humorous and exasperated at the same time (Shared by Len), before looking to Elinor with big pleading eyes. Elinor groaned inwardly.

"_Fine,_" she sighed.

"Woo!" Skull Boy, Frank and Len cheered.

"On with the story!" Frank encouraged.

Elinor sat back down in the same position she had been a few seconds ago, took a moment to remember where she was up to, and resumed the story.

**...**

As you can imagine, I was shocked and surprised just as much as the scientists were about Georgia's sudden outburst. Unlike last time, when things had gone unexpectedly _well_, I couldn't help but dwell on the recent events. It was more than obvious she got on with the scientists _much_ worse than I did.

It seemed as though they noticed it, too. Now they were studying me more than ever; recording my behaviours, examining my thought patterns and reactions to different things... Honestly, it was like they had forgotten the whole prospect of personal space. Not that they had any idea of it to begin with, I guess.

But now, they were _talking _to me. Not like I was an intelligent being though; it was more like how you would treat a dog, or a guinea pig. They talked with me extremely slowly and loudly as if I had an IQ of, like, 30. Eventually they started talking more quickly and using bigger words with me, and they were encouraging me to talk back, as well. I don't know why I almost never complied; maybe it was because Georgia was the only one I had spoken openly to.

Speaking of, I had heard from multiple conversations between the scientists that Georgia was showing more and more signs of humanoid intelligence. However, her instinct to kill and her wild and untamed way of thinking hadn't changed one bit. If anything, she was becoming more rebellious; a serious problem.

And we all know what scientists do when an animal becomes a problem.

Of course, I had no idea that was what they were planning on doing to her. I merely assumed they were going to start zapping her with a higher frequency, or something. No idea...

About a month had passed, and the scientists were starting to treat me like an actual human being. They talked to me like anyone would in a normal conversation, but I didn't usually respond with an answer that consisted of more than about four words. Still, they were able to see that I was smart; I just didn't talk much.

Then it happened.

I was asleep. I can't remember what I was dreaming at the time, only that I was suddenly awakened by someone forcibly shaking my bed. I sat up in my bed, and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. When I was able to see, the first thing that came into view...

Was Georgia.

"Niccce girl!" she said with her freakishly big smile. "Come with me!"

I just stared at her. When I got over the initial shock, I asked, "How did you get out of your room?"

"I fought my way!" she laughed crazily.

I felt like a block of ice had just landed in my stomach.

"You mean..." I stuttered, silently begging to not get the answer I feared, "You mean, you... _killed_ the guards?"

Georgia giggled darkly before replying.

"What does _kill_ mean?"

I didn't have time to answer, because just then red lights began flashing and an alarm sounded.

'_All inhabitants be alert! Five security guards have been found dead in hall number 7, floor 2! All inhabitants be alert!'_

Before I was able to react, Georgia had snatched my arm and was shooting off through the door and out the hallway. I started shouting and snarling, and even tried to claw her. I managed to force her to face me, and I slashed across her stomach. She screeched in pain, and I bolted. I was pelting on all fours, and was tempted to try and fly within the confined space.

I rounded a corner and stopped dead. In front of me were at least twenty guards, all armed. One of them saw me, and shouted to the rest. They all turned on me, and pointed their guns.

I honestly thought that was the end of me. They thought _I _was the one who had killed the other guards...

But, as luck would have it, I wasn't killed. Well, no duh.

Georgia had been right on my tail, and she roared as she streamed past me. The next thing I saw wasn't exactly... pretty. I'll spare the details.

One guy was left, and he had managed to pin Georgia to the wall. He had his big, muscular hand around Georgia's small neck, and her face was going blue. She looked at me with her wide eyes, and for the first time, I saw something else that wasn't a desire to destroy. She looked scared. And she was pleading me for help.

...

I'm not proud of what I did next. I am _really_ not proud.

I'll make it short; we both escaped that night. I don't know if that guy died. All I did was punch him as hard as I could in the back of the head. He fell to the floor like a brick, and Georgia and I managed to get away.

* * *

**Didn't see THAT comin', did ya? ;)**

**Hope you enjoyed that, as usual!**

**Ruby Gloom doesn't belong to me, and neither do the rest of the characters.**

**I own Elinor, Georgia, and the laboratory they were trapped in (but not Australia, obviously XD)**

**See ya!**


End file.
